How is he wrong? Simple answer, I'm afraid. So simple nobody even wants to get near it, much less embrace it. I'm gonna do both -- and I'll probably get my rear kicked for it -- but here goes nothing...
What does everyone think about the idea that liberal great Franklin Delano Roosevelt had his own 911? Getting queasy yet? Well, he did. It's called Pearl Harbor and it was about as much of a surprise as getting wet in the rain.
Now before those keyboards get-a clacking, hear me out.
Worse, fascism was brewing beneath the American dream, the hero (and political wannabe) of the moment -- aviator Charles Lindbergh -- as much as said he would happily sit down to dinner with Hitler (Field Marshal Hermann Goering eventually subbed for him) enjoy the entree and then dawdle over dessert and coffee as Adolph outlined his plan for dealing with the "American Jewish Problem".
Still worse was the rise of the Japan in the East. They were young, militant and hungry. Coveting American possessions in the Pacific like the Philippines while warning the world off it's conquest of China, Japan was making its play. And the West was none too pleased, especially when the The Empire of the Rising Sun made common cause with Hitler's Germany.
Now let's add up the figures. New Deal caving, rich (corporations) winning, homeland fascism dawning, Japanese flexing muscles... mmmm, what to do?
It was so simple, so easy, that in retrospect it's almost laughable. War with Japanese meant war with Germany. War also meant big bucks for the corporatists. And it also meant Roosevelt would have, essentially, unlimited power. Think about it:
A) Rich shut up. There's cash to be made.
B) Lindbergh gets his comeuppance. American Fascism down the tubes with Hitler's declaration of war
C) Money floods all sectors for war effort.
D) Japanese problem dealt with forcefully. Most likely negated.
E) War effort means jobs, jobs, jobs.
Charming, right? But it was expedient. Poke and prod the Japanese until they get the idea America would be an easy take-down. Use spies to get the timing right. Move all your aircraft carriers (with which you'll use to defeat the Japanese eventually) out to sea a day or two beforehand. Enemy behaves as expected and BINGO -- you just won the hand... in one messy, bloody but brilliant move.
We won the whole game actually, and got everything FDR promised. Cost? World War ll. Not so bad in retrospect, right? That's just what the neocons were thinking as they planned for the invasion of Iraq.
Of the genesis of 911 as a response to "Peak Oil" (must I?), Michael Ruppert wrote:
"Within their own mindset... these men, led by Dick Cheney, chose what they thought was their only logical option. I believe it (911) seemed to them the 'right' thing for them to do; after all, it was only few thousand lives. Other rulers have made similar choices in the past."
These guys knew what they doing. The had a problem (Peak Oil). They needed an expedient way of dealing with it, do a little triple tasking like their old nemesis FDR and win the whole hand. So, they tried it.
Look, I think FDR was the 20th Century's greatest president. I think we all would have been -- and would be -- utterly lost without his wisdom and foresight. But I still think he planned Pearl Harbor.
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