Excuse This Rant

Martin Longman

19 years ago

Where to start with the fucking outrage?

On September 11th, 2001 I was working at the Sarnoff Corporation in Princeton, NJ. I had a nine o’clock meeting, so at approximately 8:45 am, I got up from my desk and went outside to the smoking patio. I remember sitting in the sun and looking at the amazingly blue sky. The air was almost soft. It might have been the most beautiful morning I have ever experienced.

I chatted with some friends about how badly the Giants had played on Monday Night Football the night before. Little did I know that one of those friend’s brothers would be burned alive in Tower One. Little did I know that a second plane was flying directly over our heads and would soon plough into tower two. It would kill the nephew of one of our secretaries.

A few days later people started dying of anthrax poisoning. Some of the letters had been mailed from the Palmer Square mailbox. It was a mailbox I sometimes used. My mail sorting center in Hamilton, NJ was closed down and didn’t reopen for over two years.

Soon I was laid off. I had the honor, but also the stress of being the best man in a wedding during this period. I suffered an emotional collapse.

Things had not improved much by January 2002, when the President gave his infamous ‘axis-of-evil’ speech. I was still seething with anger over the 9/11 attacks. I definitely thought our Iraq policy (sanctions, no-fly zones, basing in Arabia) was responsible for pissing off bin-Laden. I wanted the sanctions lifted, our military pulled from Arabia, a comprehensive energy plan, and a real effort to work for a Palestinian state. But I also was still freaked from having my mail contaminated. I had no reason to think Saddam had given up his WMD programs after he kicked out the inspectors. It made no sense. I didn’t feel comfortable lifting the sanctions and leaving him in power.

:::flip:::

So, I wasn’t surprised to hear Bush say:

I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons. (Applause.)

And he knew how to appeal to the victims of the anthrax scare:

The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens — leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections — then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.

But I was appalled at his rhetoric. Why was he threatening North Korea and Iran? I could see he was declaring war on Iraq. From that moment forward I never doubted we would invade Iraq in early 2003. But that was a year away? Why telegraph your punches? Why threaten countries that you weren’t going to invade?

If Saddam had lots of poisons and he was given a year to prepare, what would that mean for our troops? Would he take advantage of the time to attack American civilians at home?

To be honest, the night he gave the axis-of-evil speech, I was less concerned with the news that we would be going to war with Iraq than I was with how long it was going to take to get fricking started.

It was all a clever hoax, wasn’t it? The anthrax was traced back to our own military labs, most likely to a lab in Maryland. Someone in our military had sent anthrax to Senators Leahy and Daschle, to Tom Brokaw and the editor of the New York Post. That’s a fact.

Saddam never had any anthrax. None. Nada.

And now we learn the real story. Bush wanted to go to war with Iraq from the moment he came into office. “It was all about finding a way to do it,” (Paul) O’Neill would explain. “That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this.’” He wanted Richard Clarke to pin 9/11 on Saddam on 9/12.

“See if Saddam did this.” When Clarke responds, “But Mr. President, Al-Qaeda did this,” Bush replies, “I know, I know, but… see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred.” Clarke insists that the CIA, FBI and White House had already concluded that there were no such links. As he exits the room, Bush “testily” reiterates, “Look into Iraq, Saddam.”
[Washington Post, 3/22/2004]

By April, 2002 he had received the assurances of Tony Blair that we could use their bases. There was no thought for what kind of government would replace Saddam. There was no thought for how much the war would cost. There was no thought for whether or not an invasion could be legally justified. Instead we have this:

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

And this:

An information campaign will be needed which has to be closely related to an overseas information campaign designed to influence Saddam Hussein, the Islamic World and the wider international community. This will need to give full coverage to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, including his WMD, and the legal justification for action.

We got full coverage alright. We got the fucking full monty. Drones, yellowcake, mobile chem/bio labs, mushroom clouds, anthrax, sarin, VX, Scuds, Curveball, Chalabi, Allawi, Safire, Krauthammer, Judith Miller, the editorial staffs of the New York Times and Washington Post.

You think I was pissed back when anthrax was in my mail? Back then I thought Islamic militants put it there. Now I know better. You think that’s a tin-foil hat thing to say? How many more lies do we need to hear? The anthrax was our anthrax.

Some hold-outs will undoubtedly say that it is all a big coincidence. They will say that it was just some disgruntled scientist that was spurred by 9/11 to send a warning about the dangers of WMD. It just so happened to fit right into the mass campaign of lies that would precede the invasion of Iraq, and the fixing of intelligence around the policy. Perhaps, they’re right. But even if that is the case, where is the investigation of the anthrax mailer? And what are we to make of the astounding cynicism with which our emotions and fears were manipulated to gain our support for a war based on a pack of lies.

And what are we to make of the total lack of planning? And what are we to make of the torture and the campaign of religious humiliation? And what about the staggering cost?

How much more inept does our leadership have to become before we rise up and demand they leave office?

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