Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18037.htm A Wake-up Call By Paul Craig Roberts 07/19/07 "ICH" -- -- This is a wake-up call that we are about to have another 9/11-WMD experience. The wake-up call is unlikely to be effective, because the American attitude toward government changed fundamentally seventy-odd years ago. Prior to the 1930s, Americans were suspicious of government, but with the arrival of the Great Depression, Tojo, and Hitler, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced Americans that government existed to protect them from rapacious private interests and foreign threats. Today, Americans are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to government than they are to family members, friends, and those who would warn them about the governmentâs protection. Intelligent observers are puzzled that President Bush is persisting in a futile and unpopular war at the obvious expense of his partyâs electoral chances in 2008. In the July 18 Los Angeles Times (âBush the Albatrossâ), Ronald Brownstein reminds us that Bushâs behavior is disastrous for his political party. Unpopular presidents âhave consistently undercut their party in the next election.â Brownstein reports that â88% of voters who disapproved of the retiring presidentâs job performance voted against his partyâs nominee in past elections. . . . On average, 80% of voters who disapproved of a presidentâs performance have voted against his partyâs candidates even in House races since 1986.â Brownstein notes that with Bushâs dismal approval rating, this implies a total wipeout of the Republicans in 2008. A number of pundits have concluded that the reason the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bushâs follies is that they expect Bushâs unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory next year. There is a problem with this reasoning. It assumes that Cheney, Rove,and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts or are content for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his warmonger-police state fling. âAfter me, the deluge.â Isnât it more likely that Cheney and Rove have in mind events that will, once again, rally the people behind President Bush and the Republican Party that is fighting the âwar on terrorâ that the Democrats âwant to loseâ? Such events could take a number of forms. As even diehard Republican Patrick J. Buchanan observed on July 17, with three US aircraft carrier battle groups in congested waters off Iran, another Tonkin Gulf incident could easily be engineered to set us at war with Iran. If Bushâs intentions were merely to bomb a nuclear reactor, he would not need three carrier strike forces. Lately, the administration has switched to blaming Iran for the war in Iraq. The US Senate has already lined up behind the latest lie with a 97-0 vote to condemn Iran. Alternatively, false flag âterroristâ strikes could be orchestrated in the US. The Bush administration has already infiltrated some dissident groups and encouraged them to participate in terrorist talk, for which they were arrested. It is possible that the administration could provoke some groups to actual acts of violence. Many Americans dismiss suspicion of their government as treasonous, and most believe conspiracy to be impossible âbecause someone would talk.â There is no basis in any known fact for this opinion. According to polls, 36% of the American people disbelieve the 9/11 Commission Report. Despite this lack of confidence, and despite the numerous omissions and errors in the report, it has proven impossible to have an independent investigation of 9/11 or to examine the official explanation in public debate. Even experts and people with a lifetime of distinguished public service are dismissed as âconspiracy theorists,â âkooks,â and âtraitorsâ if they question the official explanation of 9/11. This despite the fact that war in the Middle East, a long-planned goal of Bushâs neoconservative administration, could not have been initiated without a ânew Pearl Harbor.â That powerfully constructed steel buildings could suddenly turn to dust because they were struck by two flimsy aluminum airliners and experienced small fires on a few floors that burned for a short time appears unexceptionable to a majority of Americans. Moreover, people have talked. Hundreds of them. Firefighters, police, janitors, and others report hearing and experiencing a series of explosions in upper floors and massive explosions in the underground basements. This eyewitness testimony was kept under wraps for three or more years until the official explanation had taken root. The oral histories were finally forced loose by freedom of information act suits. The eyewitness reports of explosion after explosion had no effect. Larry Silverstein, who received billions of dollars in insurance payments for the destroyed buildings, talked. He said on public television that the order was given âto pullâ building 7. His stunning admission had no effect. The Bush administration is preparing us for more terrorist attacks. The latest intelligence report says that Al Qaeda has regrouped, rebuilt, and has the ability to come after us again. âAl Qaeda will intensify its efforts to put operatives here,â says the report. Security operatives, such as Michael Chertoff, and various instruments of administration propaganda have warned that we will be attacked before next yearâs election. Chertoff is not a person who wants to be known as Chicken Little for telling us that the sky is falling. Bush has the Republican Party in such a mess that it cannot survive without another 9/11. Whether authentic or orchestrated, an attack will activate Bushâs new executive orders, which create a dictatorial police state in event of ânational emergency.â [See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20070624&articleId=6134 ] The UK government is hand-in-glove with the Bush administration and will provide cover or verification for whatever claim the Bush administration advances. So will the right-wing governments in Canada and Australia. That takes care of the English-speaking world from which contrary explanations might reach the American people. It is possible that Bush is now too weak, that suspicion is too great, and that there is too much internal resistance in the federal bureaucracy and military for any such scenario. If so, then my prediction prior to the invasion that the US invasion of Iraq will destroy Bush, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement will be proven true. The Democratsâ strategy of doing nothing except making sure Bush gets his way will produce the landslide that they expect. However, this assumes that Cheney, Rove, and their neoconservative allies have lost their cunning and their manipulative skills. It is difficult to imagine a more dangerous assumption for Democrats and the American people to make. Once the US experiences new attacks, Bush will be vindicated. His voice will be confident as he speaks to the nation: âMy administration knew that there would be more attacks from these terrorists who hate us and our way of life and are determined to destroy every one of us. If only more of you had believed me and supported my war on terror these new attacks would not have happened. Our security efforts were impaired by the Democratsâ determined attempts to surrender to the terrorists by forcing our withdrawal from Iraq and by civil libertarian assaults on our necessary security measures. If only more Americans had trusted their government, this would not have happened.â And so on. Anyone should be able to write the script.
What a crock. Even if an attack was "in the works" Why not wait until after the elections. Do the terrorists really want to rally the public around Republican war hawks? The Republicans are on the ropes. Why give them a fighting chance with an attack?
Paul Craig Roberts went off his rocker years ago and is no longer cosidered a conservative by anyone but those who would like to bring down Bush. note: rat, if you want to persist in telling us what "real" conservatives are, convince both political parties, the media, and everyone else, and then maybe we'll pay attention to you. Until then, just stick to the 9-11 was an inside job stuff.
Have you considered that Roberts stayed on his rocker and the conservatives in America were hoodwinked by the Neo Con - New World Order clowns. Ron Paul and Craig Roberts, solid traditional conservatives , will need to be marginalized. Bush is a silly puppet representing the brains behind the Neo Con agenda.
you tell me which is more conservative... someone that supports the constitution and the bill of rights.... or a bunch of klannish that call their mentors irving kristol and trotsky and leo strauss from the univ of chicago? im sorry but todays media will consider a bunch of neocons who love communism, conservatives and someone like ron paul a radical. do the math pint size.
Yea, Bush and the Repubs are reaaaaaaaaaal Conservative. Open borders during wartime. Mastermind the North American Union that merges America with Mexico. Is that what you dips consider "Conservative" now-a-days?