The Truth will prevail, But only if we Demand it from Congress!
9-11 Inside Job and Neocons Hacked 2004
By Robert Parry, Consortium News
Posted on August 28, 2008, Printed on August 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/96687/
In judging the shape of a future John McCain presidency, there are
already plenty of dots that are easy to connect. They reveal an
image of a war-like Empire so full of hubris that it could take the
world into a cascade of crises, while extinguishing what is left of
the noble American Republic.
McCain has made clear he would continue and even escalate George W.
Bush's open-ended global war on Islamic radicals. McCain buys into
the neoconservative vision of expending U.S. treasure and troops to
kill as many Muslim militants as possible.
McCain's tough talk -- for instance, his joking about "bomb, bomb
Iran" and his vow to pursue Osama bin Laden "to the gates of hell"
-- is indistinguishable from Bush's "bring 'em on," "smoke 'em out,"
"dead or alive" rhetoric.
Beyond the words, McCain's global war strategy is as hawkish, if not
more so, than Bush's. In late 2001 and early 2002, McCain took the
lead in pushing the neocon plan of a rapid pivot from the invasion
of Afghanistan toward the prospective invasion of Iraq.
Even before the Taliban had been thoroughly defeated -- and as the
Bush administration was failing to chase bin Laden to the gates of
Tora Bora or to the gates of northwest Pakistan -- McCain was
advocating a diversion of U.S. intelligence and military assets
toward Iraq's Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with 9/11.
That premature pivot from Afghanistan to Iraq may go down as one of
the worst national security blunders in the history of the United
States. It has bogged the U.S. military down in two indefinite wars
while fueling anti-Americanism around the world and especially among
the billion-plus Muslims.
Yet, McCain and his neocon allies have never acknowledged this
serious error of judgment, nor has the mainstream U.S. news media
demanded that McCain accept responsibility for this catastrophic
mistake.
McCain instead gets away with boasting about the supposed success of
the recent U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq. (Meanwhile, Big Media stars
-- many of whom backed the Iraq invasion in 2003 -- hammer Barack
Obama for refusing to accept the conventional wisdom about the
"successful surge," as Obama tries to offer a more nuanced
analysis.)
So, as the U.S. press corps again gives cover to the Iraq War, the
larger failure of U.S. policy goes substantially unaddressed.
Not only did the McCain/Bush/neocon strategy allow bin Laden and
other al-Qaeda leaders to survive and reestablish themselves along
the Pakistani-Afghan border, the policy let the Taliban exploit
instability in Afghanistan to rebuild its forces and begin going on
the offensive against hard-pressed U.S. and NATO troops.
Potentially even worse, the Bush-McCain-neocon neglect of
Afghanistan has contributed to worsening instability in
nuclear-armed Pakistan, where the Taliban and al-Qaeda are expanding
safe havens and increasing influence.
In other words, while Bush and McCain rushed off to war against Iraq
over the distant possibility that Iraq might some day have the
capacity to build a nuclear bomb, they allowed disorder to spread in
Pakistan, a country that already possesses nuclear weapons.
Future Draft?
Another casualty of McCain's endless Middle East wars, which soon
could include Iran, would almost surely be America's volunteer army.
Though McCain officially opposes a restoration of the draft, it is
nearly impossible to envision how his multiple wars could be waged
without one.
And McCain also had made clear that he favors a neo-Cold War
confrontation with Moscow over another part of the neocon agenda --
the encircling of Russia with pro-U.S. regimes and the placement of
strategic missile systems near Russia's borders.
The fencing in of Russia fits with the goals of the neocon Project
for the New American Century that envisions an endless era of U.S.
military dominance that tolerates no potential rivals, whether an
emerging China or a resurgent Russia. The recent Russian-Georgian
conflict underscores the risks from this neocon concept.
Containing Russia in this way ultimately would require dangerous
brinkmanship. And the McCain/neocon belligerence -- like McCain's
melodramatic declaration "we are all Georgians" -- would guarantee
that one of these swaggering showdowns eventually would push the
world to the brink of a nuclear confrontation.
From the perspective of U.S. taxpayers, the neocon strategy of
permanent global dominance means funding the military-industrial
complex at levels never before seen, especially when one factors in
the simultaneous costs of the "war on terror," the Iraq War, the
Afghan War and a possible Iran War.
The combined price tag for McCain's military adventures, at a time
when the federal government is already running about half a trillion
dollars in debt, would mean that virtually every other national
priority would have to be short-changed or neglected.
There will be little money left to address the energy crisis, global
warming, retooling the auto industry, health care, Social Security,
education, infrastructure repairs, etc., etc.
Plus, as the United States solidifies itself under President McCain
as a militaristic Empire, the remnants of the old Republic would
inevitably be swept away.
Already, McCain has vowed to appoint more U.S. Supreme Court
justices in the style of Samuel Alito and John Roberts, open
advocates of an imperial presidency.
Currently, the Supreme Court has a slim 5-4 majority in favor of
maintaining some limits on the President's power. But one more
vacancy from the moderate majority -- to be filled by President
McCain -- would mean that a right-wing Supreme Court would begin
reinterpreting the U.S. Constitution to grant the President
unlimited powers in wartime.
And since wartime would never end, the Founders' vision of a
Republic -- with "checks and balances" and all people possessing
"unalienable rights" -- would be negated by an all-powerful
President who could do whatever he wished to anyone who got in the
way.
In many ways, a McCain presidency would represent the logical
culmination of America's failure to heed President Dwight
Eisenhower's parting warning about the growing power of "the
military-industrial complex."
The American people also would show that they had turned their back
on another warning from another aging leader, Benjamin Franklin, who
cautioned at the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that
the Founders had created a Republic, "if you can keep it."
AlterNet is a non profit organization and does not make political
endorsements. The opinions expressed by our writers are their own.
Robert Parry's new book is Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush
Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq."
© 2008 Consortium News All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/96687/
