It would be nice to know ahead of time the kinds of targets as the
Government here has everyone without newsracks or trashcans now.
----------
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 12:00 PM
Subject: TERROR. The price of hegemony
|
|
|
| From: "Gorojovsky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
|
| Subject: [L-I] War has hit home.
|
|
|
|
| TERROR
| The price of hegemony
|
| By Justin Raimondo
| The World Trade Center - monument of the New York
| business community, towering over downtown
Manhattan
| like twin silver phalli pointed at heaven - is but
a
| pile of smoldering rubble. Crashing down along
with
| this
| symbol of capitalism, modernity, and civilization
is
| the
| overweening hubris of a government - and a
people -
| who
| thought themselves immune. It is the doctrine of
| "American exceptionalism," the theory that the
US -
| blessed by Providence and released from the
travails
| faced by other nations - is immune, exempt not
only
| from
| the rules that govern and limit the powers of
other
| nations, but also from history itself. For
history -
| and
| not only history but physics - tells us that for
| every
| action there is an equal and opposite reaction. No
| one
| is immune, and this is the meaning of the horrific
| events unfolding before our eyes.
|
|
|
|
| Let's reiterate what has happened: in a coordinated
| operation
| that involved hijacking a plane from Boston, two
aircraft
| dove
| into the World Trade Center, leveling both buildings and
| (probably) killing and injuring thousands. Not only
that,
| but
| in Washington, D.C., the Pentagon itself was reportedly
| under
| attack, with at least one explosion in the area: also
the
| US
| State Department is the scene of yet more high drama, as
| it
| too is rocked by explosions in the area and evacuated.
It
| was
| a strange sight indeed to see an F-16 jet fighter plane
| patrolling the skies above New York City and the
| announcer's
| voice intoning in a sepulchral voice that the primary
| election
| scheduled for this morning in New York has been
canceled.
|
| Suddenly, Americans wake up one day to find that they
are
| living in a Third World country. Would anybody be
| surprised to
| learn that all civil liberties have been suspended, and
| martial law declared. What is going on?
|
| What's going on is this: the war is coming home. The war
| fought by America and its chief Middle East ally against
| the
| Palestinian uprising has moved from the street of Gaza
to
| the
| boulevards of the imperial metropolis. What Americans
are
| facing, now, is what the Israelis face only a daily
basis.
| For
| us, these attacks are a horror of monumental
proportions,
| something so out of the ordinary that to call it
'unusual'
| would be something of an understatement: for the
Israelis,
| this is a way of life.
|
| The Israelis recently had an election in which they made
a
| decision: they would rather live this way than give in
to
| the
| Palestinians' demands. They elected Ariel Sharon, an
| Israeli
| hawk, who vowed to take a tough line against the
intifada.
| The
| Palestinian response has been relentless: a vicious
| all-out
| war fought by suicide-bombers targeting civilians. They
| voted
| for it, they knew what they were getting into, and they
| have
| steeled themselves to endure it. The question that poses
| itself almost automatically is: when did we vote for it?
|
| The reappearance of kamikaze planes diving into American
| targets just a few days after V-J ("Victory over Japan")
| Day
| should give us pause: the last time we faced down and
beat
| such fanaticism was the occasion for a world war in
which
| the
| entire nation was mobilized and militarized, and there
was
| talk of canceling a presidential election. Are we
willing
| to
| do that again? And here is a sobering thought..
|
| The US mainland was completely unaffected by the last
| world
| war: millions were killed, but not on our shores. The
| closest
| they ever came was when the Japanese dropped some hot
air
| balloons over the state of Washington. But not this
time.
| In
| the age of globalization, a world war means that
| everybody's
| back yard is a potential battlefield.
|
| A common word we hear in foreign policy circles is
| "hegemonism." We stand at the apex of power, and the
| French
| have even invented a special term for the hubristic
| heights of
| the American Imperium: they call us the hyperpower. It
was
| coined to describe a power outside human history,
outside
| the
| ordinary rules and conditions attached to human
existence,
| a
| power without parallel or precedent. We were all about
| actions, and not about consequences: unlike the empires
of
| the
| past, America was thought to be exempt from any possible
| reaction to its imperial edicts. Now we know it isn't
| true:
| too bad we had to learn the hard way.
|
|
|
|
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