Did everyone see Obama’s presentation on health care the other night?
I watched most of it, with great interest. It’s not that I think health care of the kind they are trying to give to people is so useful, or that our health care system can be fixed; rather that it’s interesting to see where our national priorities are.
Today is the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. As many readers of this website know, I believe, based on evidence, that our own government created the Sept. 11 incident as a way of starting two illegal wars, clamping down on civil rights and perpetuating its own political ends. Paraphrasing a bit, a galvanizing, Pearl Harbor-like event was long in the plans, designed to start a multi-front war in the early 21st century. This, according to a Neoconservative “think tank” that formed the basis of the Cheney-Bush administration. This was called the Project for the New American Century or PNAC.
It was the height of irony to listen to various Republican responses about how we can’t afford to take care of our citizens, while we can afford wars that cost $8 billion a month. These wars serve no one and nothing except the top military brass and military contractors who manufacture the equipment needed to wage those wars. We never had a debate about whether we could afford this kind of militarization; the alleged then-president and congress plunged the country into a perpetual commitment, in response to an emergency that, by any measure you actually look at, it created itself. And I do mean look at; you can’t just go by your own opinion or what you see on the news. Of course an “enemy” created Sept. 11.
But who, exactly?
Today, CNN has plastered on its front page the “fact” that, “eight years ago, al Qaeda terrorists hijacked airplanes to crash them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.” We all “know” that this was orchestrated by Osama bin Laden, and that we went to war in Afghanistan because of this; and today we are still at war there.
But consider this: if we know that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks, with enough certainty that we could start a war, why isn’t Sept. 11 mentioned on his FBI most wanted fugitive page? The page was last revised just as we began the war with Afghanistan, in November 2001.
Then, Iraq was blamed for Sept. 11 and a new war was started two years later.
Many of us watching the Cheney-Bush administration marveled as those men and their cohorts slashed taxes on the very wealthiest and started two wars — facts not lost on President Obama, who courageously mentioned them in his presentation this week. One important effect of bankrupting the country this way was the guarantee that there would be no money for new social programs and the necessity to roll back all the old ones.
It is difficult for most of us to parse this logic: why would anyone want to do this? Remember that taking care of people whoops up all the old timey Cold War fears…this, if you can forget how many World War II vets bought houses with VA mortgages and got educations on the GI Bill and so on and on. We have a difficult to grasp reticence in our country to take care of the least among us; and in the words of my AP European History teacher, Ira Zornberg, “History is the story of the haves versus the have-nots.”
But before you think too hard, consider that the results demonstrate the motive. We have money to endlessly bomb other countries, but not to take care of our own citizens, the very ones who work two days a week to support the government that won’t support them. Today is Friday and those of us who have jobs get paid. Take a look at your pay stub and ask where your money is going.
On top of these perpetual wars, each so far lasting more than twice the length of World War II, since the 1940s our country has spent $5 trillion on nuclear weapons, according to Physicians for Social Responsibility. It’s no wonder our government doesn’t want to spend money on health care. Our number one export is death.
Today I’m going to set aside the last set of Burning Man photos and post a series of articles on the fraud known as Sept. 11, 2001, with apologies to all those who feel that their loved ones and fellow citizens who lost their lives that day died for their country. The first will post at about 10 am Eastern Time, called The Gingerbread House.
I would like to take a moment and thank you for this article. I have recently been put in a position that actually had me looking at just that….my check stub. To be more exact…how much I pay for health insurance and how much they actually DON’T
pay…..frustrating circumstances that I do believe needs to change. My question to myself was…Whos getting my money….and why am I not privy to this…seems I need to do a little investigative work…Im tired of being ripped off.