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But let's not get distracted. If we really want to know why 9/11 happened, I believe we need to take a very serious look at the second question posed by Mr. "X": Who profited from it?
That question is a LOT easier to answer. Well, let's see. The Iraq war has already cost $500 billion and counting. And Bush wants another $124 billion from Congress. With no withdrawal date. Because we have to "support the troops". Yeah. OK. So, I was thinking, how much of that dough is actually going to the troops?
Google search>army salaries. Bingo! The median salary for an Army private is - are you ready? - $16,363 a year! Of course, officers and specialists make more. Let's say $30,000 a year average… probably a generous estimate. Multiply that by 150,000 troops by 4 years and we get $18 billion.
So, that leaves $482 billion that we have NOT spent on the troops. I wonder, where could that money be going? Well, I know Halliburton got a nice chunk of it. Google search>Halliburton war income. Sure enough! $18.5 billion between March 2003 and June 2006. So that one company had made more - as of almost a year ago - than the entire personnel of the U.S. armed forces up to now! So are we really supporting the troops, or is something else going on?
Of course, that leaves $463.5 billion still not accounted for here. The sheer numbers boggle the mind. It's hard to imagine that much money. And remember: these are American taxpayer dollars! It's our money! And where is it going? Short answer: it is going straight to the place that President Eisenhower warned us about in the famous speech he made just before leaving office in 1961… the military-industrial complex! Here is what Ike had to say:
"We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence…by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
Remember, this coming from the former Supreme Allied Commander of World War II! Not exactly a peace-nik. But if he was around today, his prophetic words would surely have been spun in the right wing media and dismissed as the ravings of an unpatriotic, bleeding heart liberal! And, from the same speech:
"When the economy is based upon a state of war, it is forever necessary to sustain that economy by staying in a war."
These corporations - the ones that are raking in untold billions to service this war - are the real beneficiaries of the 9/11 attacks. And make no mistake: the people that own them are members of that top 1% that has more than the bottom 90%! And their piece of the American pie is getting bigger every day.
If we assume for the moment that to them, the end justifies the means, it also becomes extremely easy to see why there was so much intentionally manufactured false evidence about weapons of mass destruction, etc. in the run-up to starting the war in Iraq. I mean, what is more important to these heartless, greedy bastards who are really running things? That a few lies were told? That America would lose a little credibility? That tens - maybe hundreds - of thousands of people, including many of our well-intentioned brave young men and women, would be killed, wounded, maimed for life?
Or hundreds of billions of dollars??
Bush, Cheney, and their entire neo-con administration have been nothing but shills for this all-devouring, propaganda-spouting, law, truth and decency-ignoring corporate money-grabbing machine! The Republican-controlled Congress never questioned a thing, and gave them free rein to do everything they wanted to do. And they are still doing it! They will never admit a mistake, let alone any wrongdoing. And they will not stop until every last taxpayer dollar is in the hands of their corporate buddies.
Oh, and there is also Mr. X's third question: Who had the power to cover it up?
When fewer and fewer have more and more - when the news media is almost completely corporate-owned - when there exists on radio and TV such an overwhelming majority of well-funded right-wing blabbermouth talk show hosts that ridicule any opposing views and have no use for serious discussion, it is not difficult to figure out who has that power. As long as their forces control the talking points, the public will never even have the opportunity to evaluate the relevant information, let alone form an intelligent opinion.
I just have this to say about the Iraq war: if Bush and Cheney had wanted to do it right, in the way that the American people deserved and that the rest of the world could have respected, they should have waited for an international consensus. The U.N. inspectors were on the ground looking for WMDs. If they had found any, and Saddam Hussein still refused to disarm, the rest of the world would undoubtedly have come on board.
But they decided to go it alone. And the press backed them up every inch of the way, even though their rationale to go to war was highly suspect (to me) even then. And it has cost us a lot, not just in money and lives but also in credibility and respect around the world.
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clarita zarate
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