So 9-11 happened.

19 losers decided to end their lives in the most pathetic way possible, but they did so in a contemptibly clever way. Rationally speaking, their actions called for one thing. Locks on Airplane cockpit doors. Afghanistan had to happen too. But logic and reason don’t really come into it.

We were hurt and angry. I was certainly angry. Personally and, I think, as a nation we saw the world through a red haze of rage. This Onion Article from September 26, 2001 describes where we were pretty well. We wanted to break something. The mess the first George Bush made of the cold war peace dividend provided an easy option. So we went into Iraq. In its way it was effective. Gaddafi sheepishly handed us his nuclear program years before we killed him. The only state sponsored organization planning terrorist attacks in the United States today is the FBI.

Remember the Washington Metro bombing plot? The New York subway plot? The guys who planned to blow up the Sears Tower? The teenager seeking to bomb a Portland Christmas tree lighting? Each of those plots, and dozens more across the nation, was led by an FBI asset.

We have convincingly demonstrated that anybody who has anything at all to lose should know better than to fuck with us. Is that all we are though? The red haze of rage is dissipating. American Casualties are falling as we outsource the fighting to contractors and robots. We have stopped caring. We shouldn’t.

The past week’s news has been horrifying. The machinery we built up in anger is still working very very hard. We are killing people in countries most of us couldn’t find on a map. We’re killing people for saying things and for listening to ideas we don’t agree with. We are making martyrs out of morons. Is that what we want to be?

The war on Terror is over. We won. Anybody who tells you different is trying to defend an appropriation or a talking point. We have won and it is terrible. What it has cost us is sometimes hard to see, but vast.

There will be real terror attacks in the United States again. We have shown that those who perpetrate them, and all who surround them, will suffer mightily. Who benefits from keeping up a constant level of suffering? Again, we are making martyrs out of discredited fools. Our current policies are making the inevitable next terrorist act more likely rather than less likely. Are we slowly turning into something that should be fought? My country, right or wrong, but I would rather be right.

It is time to wake up, look around and realize that our half-forgotten anger has taken us to some new and nightmarish places. It is time to wake up.

Robert Morris has written in a similarly hopeful fashion about the drug war

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was recently sentenced to life in prison for complicity in the killing of unarmed demonstrators during the first six days of protests that ended his rule last February. Reuters reports, “There were celebrations in the streets when the verdict was announced, but it was short-lived, as protesters learned of the mixed verdict: While Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison, he and his two sons were acquitted of corruption charges.”

Many of those gathered in Tahrir Square shouted and waved banners calling for the execution of the former dictator. Ramadan Ahmed (whose son was killed on Jan. 28, 2011) said, “justice was not served, this is a sham.”

Human Rights Watch called the verdict a landmark, but criticized the prosecution for failing to fully investigate the case.

“It sends a powerful message to Egypt’s future leaders that they are not above the law,” Human Rights Watch spokesman Joe Stork said. “These convictions set an important precedent since just over a year ago, seeing Mubarak as a defendant in a criminal court would have been unthinkable.”

The Boston Globe reports, “With the nation still awaiting the ratification of a new constitution, the election of a new president, and the handover of power by its military rulers, the decision is Egypt’s most significant step yet toward establishing the principle that no leader is above the law.”

Though I’m not convinced that this conviction proves that “no leader (or government official) is above the law.” If the “law” meant anything then those who carried out the actions would be held responsible in court. While Mubarak is certainly liable to some extent, he was not the one to kill any protesters. The Nuremburg Principles state: “Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment.” Based on this principle, every police officer, every member of a military and every other government official should be held criminally liable for any violation of the law.

The Badger Herald reports, “police are very rarely held accountable for deaths they cause on the job… on-duty police who shoot citizens are prosecuted less than 2 percent of the time.” Not to mention the minimal percentage of military personnel who are charged with killing civilians.

While it makes people “feel good” to symbolically chop off the head, the people who commit the acts are ultimately responsible for their own actions.

Nobody cares.

Among Americans, that is. The folks world-wide who have to deal with our choices care a great deal. Among Americans though, nobody really cares. Living in Turkey I hear a lot about how US foreign policy is corruptly guided by the “Jewish Lobby”, and the oil companies.* The more sophisticated among those I talk to claim that US foreign policy is owned and run by the defense industry. There are elements of truth to these critiques, but they miss the bigger picture.

American foreign policy is owned and guided by American foreign policy practitioners. This is usually described as a Military-Industrial complex, but that label over-states the importance of the defense industry. Foreign policy practitioners, defined widely, include literally millions of Americans. Yes, this includes defense contractors, the Department of Defense, and Representatives and Senators whose only concern is the amount of military money they can grab for their constituencies. More importantly, however, this also includes tens of thousands of academics, think tank analysts, consultants and journalists. It is their failure of imagination, not just congressional greed, that has gotten us into our many current messes.

The main problem is not corruption but a lack of ideas. Since 1989 this establishment has been casting around for a reason to continue to exist. The modern foreign policy establishment was forged during the Cold War. The all consuming battle with communism, on ideological, sociological, economic and military fronts created a vast infrastructure.

For 23 years this infrastructure has lacked any clear purpose. It has only had a question: “What are we here for?”. So yes, when Halliburton or Northrup Grumman or AIPAC provides an easy answer the foreign policy establishment grabs it with all the vigor and idiocy of a drowning man. These are not the only entities providing easy answers. The half-baked Wilsonianism of the “Duty to Protect” crowd comes to mind. This is not corruption. This is desperation. see more…

Just in time for Memorial Day (the day set aside to remember those brutally killed in the racket that is war) the Congress has voted to once again allow the federal government the ability to domestically distribute propaganda.

Michael Hastings of BuzzFeed.com reports, “The new law would give sweeping powers to the government to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public. ‘It removes the protection for Americans,’ says a Pentagon official who is concerned about the law. ‘It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false.’”

It’s not enough that the National Guard pays $26.5 million per year to sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s #88 race car ($136 million over the past 5 years, making him the highest-paid military contractor that has nothing to do with the military). That represents a small fraction of the roughly $667 million spent per year by the military on advertising. Now that the prohibition on domestic propaganda has been repealed, instead of seeing ads where the Marine climbs the mountain and grabs the sword, you could see an ad where the Marine tells you all the reasons to invade Iran, or some other country that is not a threat to your safety.

It’s even possible the White House Press Secretary will not only announce Iran’s intention to build a nuclear weapon (which is a false claim) but that Iran has indeed build said weapon and intends to use it any day to kill your dog – sorry, that’s the DTF that kills your dog. It’s also likely the Pentagon will revive some old ad campaigns depicting the “enemy” as a savage ape.

John Glaser of AntiWar.com writes, the prohibition on propaganda aimed at Americans did not mean the end of propaganda, “with a sycophantic mass media filling in for the state all along the way… But a modern phenomenon really put a stick in the spokes of the government’s attempts to treat the public like mushrooms and the mass media’s efforts to dominate the airwaves with regurgitated state spin.” The Internet has made it a little harder for the mainstream media to keep the masses ignorant by making vast amounts of information freely and immediately accessible. There’s an old saying: “knowledge is power.” When you have knowledge, you’re taking power away from those who don’t want you to have it.