USA: from 9/11 to the police/warfare state

Paul Craig Roberts to his publication “How America was Lost”

by Paul Craig Roberts*, economist and publicist, USA

The demonization of the Soviet Union in the post-World War II era was the basis for America’s reputation as the defender of freedom and democracy. Some historians and commentators deny that the United Sates deserved its reputation. The point to America’s destruction of native inhabitants, to the theft of Spanish territories in Texas and what become the Southwest of the United States, to the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, to the apartheid existence of black Americans who participated very little in freedom and democracy for most of American history, and to Washington’s refusal to tolerate the rise of reformist governments in Central America.

Pursue the agenda of hegemony over the world

Whether or not America ever deserved its reputation, during the last few years of the 20th century under the Bill Clinton regime and during the 21st century neoconservative regimes of George W. Bush and Barak Obama, Washington threw away America’s reputation in order to better pursue its agenda of hegemony over the world.
The Soviet Union had constrained and limited American power. The collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed American hubris and arrogance. Having declared itself to be the “world’s only superpower,” Washington began reorganizing the world in its own interest, which Washington disguised as “bringing freedom and democracy to the world.”

The September 11, 2001, attacks

The September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon provided the “new Pearl Harbor” that the neoconservatives had written was necessary in order to launch their wars of conquest. The history of the 21st century has been the consequence of 9/11.
The government’s account of 9/11 has been effectively by 2, 000 high-rise architects and structural engineers, by physicists and chemists, by firefighters and first responders, by pilots, and by numerous former government officials. No aware and informed person believes that the US national security state and the intelligent services of Washington’s NATO allies and Israel’s Mossad were outsmarted by a handful of Arabs operating independently of any government and intelligence service.
Washington’s argument has been that terrorists must be killed “over there” before they come “over here” and attack America again. This argument has never made any sense, because Washington acknowledges that terrorists are stateless. According to Washington, almost all of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi Arabians. Yet, Washington attacked Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington arranged the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya despite the absence of any relationship to 9/11. Almost every day Washington murders with drones people in Pakistan und Yemen, countries with which America is not at war. Washington has sent Kenyan troops to fight Islamists in Somalia, and has sent French and Nigerian troops to Mali to fight the Washington-armed Islamists who drifted there after helping to overthrow Gaddafi.
Mao said power comes out of the barrel of a gun. Washington says freedom and democracy come out of bombings. Mao is reviled, but Washington is praised or praises itself.

Give up civil liberties granted by the constitution

The second part of Washington’s argument is that in order to be safe, Americans must give up the civil liberties granted to them by the US Constitution. In order to be safe, Americans must consent to citizens being thrown into prison indefinitely without any evidence presented to a court and without any executive branch accountability to due process.
Americans must also consent to their government’s murder of citizens without due process of law. Mere suspicion or unproven accusation by some unaccountable executive branch official is enough to snuff out the life and liberty of American citizens and to confiscate all of their property and assets.
To be safe, Americans must also consent to being spied on – every email, every Internet site visited, every telephone call, every letter written, every credit card used and purchase made, as William Binney and Edward Snowden have proven. On September 28, 2013, The New York Times reported that the NSA is even mapping the social connections of US citizens. Washington’s argument is that unless Americans accept the most complete police state in human history, they are not safe.
Consequently, today no American is safe from his own government.

Facts are no longer permitted