Spinning war crimes for empire and oil

This is the war on terror and the war of terror, the Project for the New American Century, or the New World Order, crafted before the events of September 11, 2001 and trafficked to a frightened-beyond-reason public unwilling to examine why we’re hated, receptive only to “they’re jealous of our freedoms.” Frenzied by nationalism, our young rushed to recruitment centers and on to boot camp, trained as matriculants of imperial US murder. It is the long war, perhaps permanent, a consequence of evil intersections, machinations to bomb a country or two, three, four, five, six, seven, whatever, back to the Stone Age.

“USA! USA! USA!”

The Cheney/Bush administration had what it required, as articulated by Dick, “a Pearl Harbor-like event.” Finally, a president and his vice’s grasp held America’s palpable fear. Cheney must have said, “Be still my heart.” With the collapse of towers, a ruptured Pentagon, and a cratered field in Pennsylvania, Dick Cheney, malevolence personified and an admitted torturer, entered the shelter of his nurtured delusions where he paved a corridor of death not only for “coalition forces” but, also, for civilians and those angry “insurgents,” whose lands his greed-twisted project encompassed.

The fourth estate became corporate media. Quivering masses tuned to episodes of reality anything, shunning critical thought.

Allowing the Patriot Act to subvert the Constitution, we ceded both to foreign terrorists and to terrorists within the highest echelons of our government.

The 9/11 Commission convened only after family members pressed for an investigation. The long-awaited verdict placed blame for the attack on a “failure of imagination.”

There has been little consideration by our “leadership” that the footprint of US foreign policy in the Middle East has created enemies, that our allegiance to Israel is a denial of human rights to Palestinians, and that our sanctions and occupations have killed millions. For maintenance and expansion of US geopolitical power/hegemony. And for oil.

“USA! USA! USA!”

“OIL! OIL! OIL!”

If you are a family member of someone who either died on 9/11 or from breathing toxins at the scene, your loved one perished for empire and oil. If you are a family member of someone killed in the resulting, vengeful invasion and occupation, your “hero” was sacrificed on empire and oil’s altar.

Soon, we mark the 10-year anniversary of that September morning. Barack Obama is continuing the foreign policy carnage. For empire and oil.

Soon, we mark the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. Soldier suicide is on the rise. Sixty-six troops died in Afghanistan’s 2011 August. For empire and oil.

Soon, we mark the 10-year anniversary of one day; one day that has led to fall-in-the-floor anguish for families of troops and who-knows-how-many dead, wounded, or maimed civilians, including children, in the countries we’ve destroyed. For empire and oil.

Congress has appropriated a total of $1.26 trillion for war in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, 2011. Add to this $7.6 trillion spent on security since that day in 2001. For empire and oil.

Dick no-apologies Cheney, in his memoir that will hit bookstores this past weekend, spins his war crimes, about which we know already. Pride in torture is characteristic of his particular defect. But here’s something new: After the malevolent antisocial’s heart surgery in 2010, he was unconscious for weeks, dreaming of life in an Italian villa with cobblestone streets. If there were justice, Cheney’s mental images while comatose would have been his indictment, arrest, and prosecution for crimes against humanity.

If there were justice, Barack Obama would have held the Bush administration accountable for crimes against peace. If there were justice, the Obama Administration would be held accountable. Instead of hawking their books, they’d have been booked.

Missy Comley Beattie lives in Baltimore. She can be reached at missybeat@gmail.com.