{"id":15047,"date":"2020-09-11T09:48:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T13:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=15047"},"modified":"2020-09-12T21:04:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T01:04:43","slug":"war-on-terror-still-a-sham-after-19-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/11\/war-on-terror-still-a-sham-after-19-years\/","title":{"rendered":"War on Terror: Still a Sham After 19 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Nineteen years after the 9\/11 attacks, the War on Terror is still the biggest sham of this century. President George W. Bush promised to \u201crid the world of evil\u201d and instead unleashed war and carnage.\u00a0 American troops are now fighting in 14 nations as part of an endless crusade against \u201cextremists.\u201d President Obama provided massive military aid and other support to Al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups in Libya and Syria \u2013 and the Trump administration continued the Syrian idiocy and has repeatedly veered close to war with Iran. Trump talks of \u201cending endless wars\u201d but he has failed to deliver on one of his most important 2016 campaign promises.<\/p>\n

The terrorist watchlist has over a million names compiled in a process that is a parody of due process. The feds claim a right to treat every American like a terrorist suspect every time they buy an airplane ticket. The National Security Agency has ravaged Americans\u2019 privacy but supposedly the real villains are Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.<\/p>\n

Will America ever politically recover? Politicians have perpetually exploited 9\/11 to kill foreigners and to repress Americans.<\/strong> Will this constitutional travesty never end?<\/p>\n

This is the 17th<\/sup> anniversary of the publication of Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace To Rid the World of Evil<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 The last sentence of the first chapter asked: \u201cWhat are the prospects for the survival of American liberty from an endless war against an elusive, often ill-defined enemy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is a link to the transcript of my C-SPAN Booknotes interview <\/a>on that book.<\/p>\n

Here is a link to the Introduction chapter of Terrorism & Tyranny<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are the reviews the book <\/a>spurred.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some of the epigrams from the book:<\/p>\n

*The Patriot\u00a0 Act treats every citizen like a suspected terrorist and every federal agent like a proven angel.<\/p>\n

*Most of the homeland security successes in the war on terrorism have been farces or frauds.<\/p>\n

*Nothing happened on 9\/11 that made the federal government more trustworthy.<\/p>\n

*The worse government fails, the less privacy citizens supposedly deserve.<\/p>\n

*The U.S. government is far more efficient at making enemies than at defending Americans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>*Killing foreigners is no substitute for protecting Americans.<\/p>\n

*Perpetual war inevitably begets perpetual repression. It is impossible to destroy all alleged enemies of freedom everywhere without also destroying freedom in the United States.<\/p>\n

*A lie that is accepted by a sufficient number of ignorant voters becomes a political truth.<\/p>\n

*Citizens should distrust politicians who distrust freedom.<\/p>\n

*In the long run, people have more to fear from governments than from terrorists. Terrorists come and go, but power-hungry politicians will always be with us.<\/p>\n

*The word \u2018terrorism\u2019 must not become an incantation that miraculously razes all limits on government power.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

From the Bush Betrayal (St. Martin’s, 2004)<\/p>\n

There are no harmless political lies about a war. The more such lies citizens tolerate, the more wars they will get. <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe myths of 9\/11 continue to threaten American safety. <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Following are some of my early attacks on the War on Terrorism:<\/p>\n

Investor\u2019s Business Daily <\/strong>October 2, 2001<\/p>\n

Government Trust Grows Despite Its Inability to Protect<\/strong><\/p>\n

by JAMES BOVARD<\/p>\n

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Americans\u2019 trust in government is soaring after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.<\/strong> The number of people who trust the government to do the right thing has doubled since last year, and now is more than three times higher than in 1994. According to a Washington Post poll released on Sept. 27, 64% of Americans now \u201ctrust the government in Washington to do what is right\u201d either \u201cjust about always\u201d or \u201cmost of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronald Brownstein, a Los Angeles Times columnist, declared on Sept. 19: \u201cAt the moment the first fireball seared the crystalline Manhattan sky last week, the entire impulse to distrust government that has become so central to U.S. politics seemed instantly anachronistic.\u201d Brownstein\u2019s headline \u2013 \u201cThe Government, Once Scorned, Becomes Savior\u201d \u2013 captured much of the establishment media\u2019s response to the attacks.<\/p>\n

It is puzzling that trust in government would soar after the biggest intelligence\/law enforcement failure since the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. At least in the first weeks after the attack, the federal government\u2019s prestige appears higher than at any time since the start of the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

The Post poll also revealed that the disastrous attacks of Sept. 11 greatly increased Americans\u2019 confidence that government will protect them against terrorists. From 1995 through 1997, the results consistently showed that only between 35% and 37% of Americans had \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201ca good amount\u201d of confidence that the feds would deter domestic attacks by terrorists. In hindsight, the public was far more prescient than were the Washington policy-makers who chose not to make defending against such attacks a high priority. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, confidence in government\u2019s ability to deter terrorist attacks has soared \u2013 clocking in at 66%, almost double the percentage in the most recent previous Washington Post poll on this question in June 1997.<\/p>\n

The bigger the catastrophe, the more credulous many people seem to become. The worse government failed to protect people in the past, the more certain most people become that government will protect them in the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prominent liberals are capitalizing on the new mood to call for razing the restraints on government power. Wall Street Journal columnist Al Hunt says it\u2019s \u201ctime to declare a moratorium on government-bashing\u2026. For the foreseeable future, the federal government is going to invest or spend more, regulate more and exercise more control over our lives,\u201d he rejoices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no real debate over expansion (of government power) in general.\u201d Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland snipped, \u201cIdeologues on the right saw government as an evil to be rolled back.\u201d In a breathtaking leap of logic, he reasons: \u201cThe terror assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon \u2026 should profoundly shake the less-is-more philosophy that was the driving force for the tax-cut politics of Bush and conservative Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is no evidence that Osama bin Laden targeted the U.S. because of ire over George Bush\u2019s proposal to reduce the estate tax. Hoagland\u2019s effort is reminiscent of liberal efforts after the assassination of John F. Kennedy to paint right-wingers everywhere as unindicted co-conspirators in Kennedy\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to understand how the failures of the CIA, the FBI, and the Federal Aviation Administration could generate a blank check for all other federal agencies to exert more control over 270 million Americans. The success of the disastrous attacks of Sept. 11 were due far more to gross negligence and a shortage of competence than to a shortage of power. The federal government needs sufficient power to protect Americans against terrorist attacks and to harshly punish the perpetrators of the recent attacks. But such power shouldn\u2019t place a golden crown on the head of every would-be bureaucratic dictator, from the lowest village zoning enforcer to the most deluded federal agency chieftain.<\/p>\n

The blind glorification of government, now popular, puts almost all liberties at grave risk.<\/strong> At least for the time being, people have lost any interest in government\u2019s batting average \u2013 either for actually protecting citizens or for abusing power. The best hope for the survival and defense of liberty is that enough Americans will recall the type of history lessons that public schools never teach.<\/p>\n

At this time of national crisis, we must forget neither our political heritage nor the inherent limits of any governmental machinery. Government has a vital role in defending Americans from deadly foreign threats. But nothing that happened on Sept. 11 or since changed the fundamental nature of American government.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Bovard is the author of \u201cFeeling Your Pain: The Explosion & Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years\u201d(St. Martin\u2019s Press, 2000).<\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

In late September 2001, Reason<\/em> magazine asked a handful of folks \u201cto discuss which civil lliberties they thought were most at risk in what has been called America\u2019s first 21st century war.\u201d They published the responses in an article entitled, Guarding the Home Front: Will civil liberties be a casualty in the War on Terrorism<\/em>?\u201d in their December 2001 issue.<\/p>\n

Here was my take a few weeks after 9\/11:<\/p>\n

Lessons Never Taught<\/strong> Jim Bovard<\/p>\n

The blind glorification of government currently prevailing puts almost all liberties at grave risk. Most of the media and most of the politicians are stampeding behind the notion that the greatest danger is any limit on federal power. The Justice Department wish list of remedies invokes the danger of terrorism to seek sweeping new powers to be used against all classes of alleged criminals.<\/p>\n

The determination of some members of the Bush administration to use the terrorist attacks to wage wars against a laundry list of \u201crogue nations\u201d could mean that aggressive military action continues indefinitely\u2013along with the pretext to suppress Americans\u2019 freedom of speech and movement. And if there is another successful terrorist attack that kills many Americans, the pressure for severe crackdowns will probably be irresistible\u2013regardless of how badly government agencies screwed up in failing to prevent the attack. At least for the time being, people have lost any interest in government\u2019s batting average\u2013either for actually protecting citizens or for abusing power.<\/p>\n

The best hope for the survival of liberty is that Americans will finally learn the history lessons public schools never taught.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim Bovard is the author, most recently, of Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion & Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (St.Martin\u2019s Press).<\/p>\n