In the face of the lies and secrecies shown by the Bush administration with respect to the events leading to the 9/11 attacks I have been impressed today by an article written by journalist Thomas Friedman in which he states

"I don't blame President Bush at all for his failure to imagine evil. I blame him for something much worse: his failure to imagine good... There is no way we can be successful in this war [against terrorism] without partners, and there is no way America will have lasting partners, especially in Europe, unless it is perceived as being the best global citizen it can be. And the best way to start conveying that would be by reducing our energy gluttony and ratifying the Kyoto treaty to reduce global warming.... Too bad we don't have a president who could imagine that."

I personally go beyond the blaming of President George Bush Jr. as our societal problems have become systemic with Corporate America and the White House converging their interests. With the convergence of business interests with the White House the latter has become the sanctuary for vipers and liars.

Last night, as I navigated through the Internet, I came across a web site managed by AfroCubaWeb and again I glanced at the many hyperlinked web pages reporting the many dots and their connections leading to the 9/11 attacks. In the book "Bin Laden: The Hidden Truth" by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquié, the authors state that, few months before the 9/11 attacks, Bush administration officials threatened war against the Taliban unless they would agree to the construction of a pipeline and to the surrender of Osama Bin Laden. Bush administration officials are reported to have said

"Accept our carpet of gold or be buried under a carpet of bombs,"

a threat which is consistent with my earlier characterization of the Bush administration philosophy of "Money talks, BS walks."

The war against the Taliban and the Al Qaeda network waged after the 9/11 attacks was nothing else but a consequence of the above mentioned threat, and not a war of self defence as portrayed by the Bush administration.

On May 16, 2002 NBC News reported that the Bush administration had plans, prior to the 9/11 attacks, to wage an all out war against the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. In light of this information, the speculation that Osama Bin Laden would have mandated the 9/11 attacks as a pre-emptive strike against the US planned war becomes a stronger possibility.

This war on terrorism waged by president George Bush Jr. looks more and more as a smokescreen hiding the Bush administration's gluttony for energy.

References

Ongoing general reference on the Bush administration, Web Site managed by BuzzFlash http://www.buzzflash.com/

Quotations from the book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, by Chalmers Johnson, Henry Holt, 2000 http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blowback_CJohnson/Quotations_BCJ.html

A Failure to Imagine, by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, May 19, 2002 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/19/opinion/19FRIE.html

"War on Terrorism" planned before 9-1. A "wag the dog" oil war scenario, by AfroCubaWeb http://www.afrocubaweb.com/news/wagdog.htm

New French Book on Bush Gov't Blocking Investigations into Saudis, San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, November 16, 2001 at 09:28 AM http://sf.indymedia.org/2001/11/109502.php

U.S. planned for attack on al-Qaida The directive represents the game plan for an all-out diplomatic and military assault on al-Qaida, sources told NBC's Jim Miklaszewski. May 16, 2002 http://www.msnbc.com/news/753359.asp?0cb=-31824124