For example, I’ve read a number of biographies of George Washington, who was actually a horrible general. Washington’s early campaigns were disastrous, and the entire Revolutionary War was almost lost due to Washington’s early miscalculations (for example, his first major battle was fought from a low, exposed position, so that the British forced a surrender by seizing the high ground).
But Washington was brave. He always rode with the first wave of soldiers, even when there were waves of incoming cannon balls being hurled in his direction. Washington’s courage – and his willingness to consistently fight on the front lines with his men – was one of the main factors in the success of the American Revolution.
“The rescue is being sold as a must-have emergency measure by an administration with a controversial record when it comes to asking Congress for special authority in time of duress.”***
Mr. Paulson has argued that the powers he seeks are necessary to chase away the wolf howling at the door: a potentially swift shredding of the American financial system. That would be catastrophic for everyone, he argues, not only banks, but also ordinary Americans who depend on their finances to buy homes and cars, and to pay for college.
Some are suspicious of Mr. Paulson’s characterizations, finding in his warnings and demands for extraordinary powers a parallel with the way the Bush administration gained authority for the war in Iraq. Then, the White House suggested that mushroom clouds could accompany Congress’s failure to act. This time, it is financial Armageddon supposedly on the doorstep.
“This is scare tactics to try to do something that’s in the private but not the public interest,” said Allan Meltzer, a former economic adviser to President Reagan, and an expert on monetary policy at the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business. “It’s terrible.”
Indeed, Congressmen Brad Sherman, Congressman Paul Kanjorski and Senator James Inhofe all say that the government used scare tactics by warning of martial law if Tarp wasn’t passed:
In addition, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and others in government made it official policy not to prosecute (and see this) – or even to discloseWall Street Fraud.Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind quotes Geithner as saying:
The confidence in the system is so fragile still… a disclosure of a fraud… could result in a run, just like Lehman.
The main motivation behind the administration’s indulgence of serious criminality evidently is fear of the consequences of taking tough action on individual bankers.
That is why false flag terrorism – which governments around the world admit that they carry out – has been so effective for 2,000 plus years in allowing government leaders to convince the people that we should go to war.
Government officials say that 9/11 was a state-sponsored attack. Some say that it was Iran, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Israel or other countries which backed the attack.
For example, Nobel prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz says that the $3-5 trillion spent on the Iraq war alone has been very bad for the American economy. See this, this and this.
We wouldn’t have launched the war against Iraq – or the endless panoply of wars throughout the Middle East and North America – if 9/11 had actually been in investigated.
It is beyond dispute that 9/11 was entirely foreseeable, but – due to the extreme negligence and incompetence or lack of caring of the Bush administration (remember, I’m not getting into any other theories in this post) it wasn’t stopped. Even the chair of the 9/11 Commission said that the attack was preventable.
If there had been a real 9/11 investigation, the government’s criminal incompetence (or worse) and idiotic policies of backing Al Qaeda would have come to light. And Americans would have learned that terrorism can largely be prevented if the military and intelligence officers are simply allowed to do their job.
Americans would have learned through any real 9/11 investigation that Cheney’s negligence and mucking around in what should have been the generals’ jobs was partly responsible for allowing 9/11 to happen.
In other words, a real 9/11 investigation would have shown Americans that 9/11 should of, could of, and would have been stopped – and that America can protect itself against future terrorist attacks – simply by playing goalie well in our country.
Instead – as the 9/11 Commission itself states – there was criminal obstruction of justice and a whitewash of the investigation. See this, this, this, this, and this.
We have been so afraid; so hell bent on destroying enemies … both foreign and domestic … we have hurt ourselves and our democracy.
Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser also told the Senate in 2007 that the war on terror is so overblown that it is “a mythical historical narrative”.
Former deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threats, a 23-year senior CIA analyst, who “drafted or was involved in many of the government’s most senior assessments of the threats facing our country [and who] devoted years to understanding and combating the jihadist threat”, writes today in the Washington Post that the neocons have whipped us into an irrational fear of the terrorism. In reality, “Osama bin Laden and his disciples are small men and secondary threats whose shadows are made large by our fears” and our leaders.
This is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. The BBC produced a documentary called The Power of Nightmares in 2005 that showed that politicians were greatly exaggerating the terrorist threat for political ends.
As such, the threats from terrorism form even more of a “justification” for a suspension of our Constitutional rights.
The failure to investigate 9/11 has bankrupted America financially and morally, and has allowed us to stand idly by while our liberty has been destroyed.
What Do Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Spiritual Leaders Say About Fear?
Numerous mental health experts – including the following list – say that fear of questioning the government’s cartoonish “we couldn’t have known and we couldn’t have done anything to protect the homeland” version of 9/11 is not healthy, but has led to an authoritarian regime in the U.S.:
Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Lester Grinspoon, MD
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, as well as Radiology, at Duke University Medical Center D. Lawrence Burk, Jr., MD
Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Rutgers University Barry R. Komisaruk
Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, Professor of Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine and Distinguished Professor of Global Health in the College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Michael D. Knox
Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Laura Schafer
Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University Alan Gilchrist
Professor Emeritus, Psychology and Neuroscience, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Michael Gabriel
Former Chief Mental Health Coordinator and Director of Manpower Development and Training, Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, and Lecturer in Psychology, Boston University Herbert Hoffman
Professor of Psychology, University of Chicago and Northwestern University Jack Sawyer
Professor of Psychology at University of New Hampshire William Woodward
In other words, ministers, priests, psychiatrists, psychologists, trauma experts, sociologists and other mental health experts say that failure to stand up and face our deepest fears is destroying us as individuals … and as a nation.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article.