Postcard From Tomorrow
Elections proved inconvenient in the end. Democracy,
even the pretend-democracy of the 2000 and 2004 presidential
elections, was just too stubborn an impediment to the
absolute powers sought by the Bush/Cheney regime. And
the institutions of a democratic republic, forged through
centuries of political struggle and nationwide introspection,
were quite easily swept aside, once the people could be
persuaded their lives were in constant danger.
But it took more than one spectacular terrorist event to accomplish this coup de grâce and to install military rule. Certainly, the sight of large planes flying into New York City's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 was a potent pill in dissolving the freedom-loving mindset of most Americans, even if their supposed liberties had been more imagined than real.
For "9/11," as it came to be known, had served its creators well. Under the banner of 'War on Terror', they could launch two catastrophic and ill-conceived military adventures, one in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq. Of course, the idea of warring on a concept or a word may appear absurd to us now, but it makes sense in the cultural context of the day, in which corporations conditioned their employees to kneel before authority, no matter how foolish, misguided or ill-informed, on pain of financial death. With the connivance of a complicit media embracing the same culture, and mind-numbing television and Hollywood entertainments that dulled the spirit of enquiry, this War on Terror could serve as a powerful propaganda tool.
Yet, by 2005, there was too little momentum left over in the 9/11 reaction to prosecute incursion into a third nation, Iran, despite the dominant news cartel's most dogged efforts, at the Bush administration's behest, to conjure the idea of nuclear menace from yet another Moslem country. Weary from a perpetual climate of fear, and reeling from the economic toll of previous oil raids, the American people balked at chasing more phantoms in the Middle East solely for the enrichment of privileged war-profiteers working the levers of government.
So it took a yet more lethal terrorist blow, this time of nuclear proportions and made to appear the work of Iran, to finally overthrow the Bill of Rights with its protections of free speech, privacy, property, impartial legal process, and humane treatment of prisoners, and to establish military rule that was dictatorship in all but name.
Of course, the masterstroke in this work of political genius was to stage the terrorist disaster in France. That way, American operatives would not have to suffer immediate radiological fallout themselves nor directly endure devastating financial repercussions for their business interests. This scheme also nourished the vindictive desires of government operatives who never forgave France for its vocal and almost successful opposition, at the United Nations, to the earlier designs on Iraq. But most importantly, it would sting additional European powers, bringing new supplies of arms and money, into supporting the military aggression that an exhausted and bankrupted America could no longer mount alone.
Now, government insiders could replace their subtle manipulations of a corrupt system, along with the last vestiges of resistance in the Legislature, the Judiciary, and a few organs of government, with naked despotism that swept aside all opponents to a war-driven agenda and which murdered, maimed or tortured activists, investigators and whistleblowers that stood in the way.
Most Americans now willingly cooperated in their own destruction. And the Judiciary, which had usually been compliant to the Executive branch, but which on occasion had enraged Washington powermongers with bouts of recalcitrance, was replaced with a network of military tribunals that did to people as it was told, punishing patriotism and principle, and instead nurturing, or more often taking part in, money-making schemes, murders, and corruptions in high places.
November 2004
