Welcome to the Fourth Reich

David McGowan
Author of Derailing Democracy: The America the Media Don't Want You To See © 2000 and the as yet unpublished book Understanding the F-Word: American Fascism and the Politics of Illusion.
Let me see if I understand this situation correctly. In order to wage a war to promote 'freedom' and 'democracy' around the world, it is necessary to sacrifice those very democratic freedoms here at home. That makes perfect sense to me, as it apparently does to all the flag-wavers out there who have fallen victim to the relentless war-mongering propaganda being spewed out by our 'independent' media.
      Some of you, by the way, may want to keep those flags readily accessible in the coming months and years. They will come in very handy to drape over the pine boxes that your sons and daughters will be being shipped home in.
      It does seem a bit strange though that the man leading the charge to extend 'democracy' to all corners of the globe didn't actually assume office through anything even remotely resembling a democratic process, but was rather appointed by five men who themselves were appointed to office. I guess that's unimportant though, as none of our politicians or their fully complicit media hacks have bothered to comment on it.
      Still it should be noted that while Sir George rants and raves about how Osama bin Laden hates democracy and freedom, it was he and his appointers who showed complete contempt for the most basic tenets of democracy just ten short months ago. The Supreme Court decision signed by Rehnquist did state, in no uncertain terms, that: "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States."
      So now we are treated to the repellent spectacle of a man who we had no right to vote for - according to the interpreters of our Constitution - teaching the world by show of force exactly how democracy is practiced. Now isn't that special? It does seem funny though that none of the supposed 'liberals' in Washington or in the press corps have had a goddamned thing to say about any of that.
      Not a ripple of dissent on Capitol Hill or from the press corps could be heard in reaction to Bush's absurd statement to Congress and the people Thursday evening that "[The terrorists] hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government." Of course, it would be difficult to argue with the first part of that statement.
      It is certainly true that many of the world's people hate the men and women that were in that room, and with good reason. It is not, as Bush indicated, because "They hate our freedoms," but rather because they have been driven to unthinkable levels of hatred by having been denied their own freedoms for decades – thanks in large part to the military interventions designed and implemented by the men in that room.
      It is frequently said that those who forget history are condemned to repeat its mistakes. George Bush though has not likely forgotten the history that is now being repeated. It was, after all, his grandfather Prescott Bush and his great-grandfather Herbert Walker who had their assets seized by the Alien Property Custodian under the Trading With The Enemy Act for operating Nazi front companies during World War II.
      That didn't stop Bush from declaring, in his Thursday night speech, that: "We have seen their kind before. They're the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century ... they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism." Quite a remarkable statement coming from the grandson of one of the men who financed the rise and genocidal reign of those ideologies.
      Even more remarkable is that he made that statement immediately after declaring that: "We're not deceived by their pretensions to piety." Not surprisingly, his trademark smirk could be detected lurking just beneath the surface of his feigned earnestness.
      The script that his forebears helped bring to life many decades ago has now been dusted off and resurrected by the chosen son. All of the elements are already in place. An unelected leader has seized control of the country through 'legal' means, though the legality was predicated solely on the fact that those interpreting the law were fully complicit conspirators.
      The legislative branch of government has abandoned all pretense of being anything other than a single-party entity, and has bestowed upon the Chief Executive sweeping powers to wage war, both at home and abroad, in any way his administration sees fit. The Office of Homeland Security has been created, although it may as well have been dubbed the Department of the Fatherland.
      The burning of the symbol of the German ship of state, the Reichstag , has been replaced with the burning of the symbols of the American ship of state – the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. The effect, both then and now, has been to rally unprecedented support for a vacant, demagogic pawn of international corporate fascists.
      The devolution of America into an overt police state has already begun. War of unthinkable proportions has been declared against a wide swath of humanity. The scapegoating and victimization of a religious minority has already begun, this time with Muslims filling the role previously filled by Jews. A severe economic downturn has begun as well, to further inflame the passions of the American people.
      Wake the fuck up, America! Your enemies are not hiding in caves in Afghanistan. They are hiding in plain sight. Your enemies are not the Arab-Americans who walk among you; your enemies look just like you. They do not live half a world away, but are right here in Washington. Their faces can be seen daily populating the cable news shows, right alongside of their craven propagandists in the U.S. media.
      Their names are Bush, Daschle, Lott, Clinton, Hastert, Byrd, Cheney, Rehnquist, Scalia, Powell, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Gephardt, and all the rest of the human refuse who make up the one-party power structure in Washington. They are assisted in their goals by a cast of dour propagandists named Brokaw, Rather, Jennings, Koppel, O'Reilly, Matthews, Russert, and too many others to list here.
      These are the people who would rob you of your freedoms and liberties. These are the people who have nothing but the most thinly-veiled contempt for democracy, for civil liberties, for human rights, for racial tolerance, and for the right of self-determination for people everywhere. These are the people who, without so much as a hint of shame, would wage genocidal war around the world while spouting platitudes about "democracy.'"
      Bush has pledged that "We will direct every resource at our command ... every necessary weapon of war." Make no mistake about it, the United States has the capacity and the willingness to kill on an unthinkable level. Before we even resort to our "tactical" nuclear weapons, which is a near certainty, America has any number of "unconventional" warfare techniques guaranteed to kill millions, all of which have been used in the past.
      There is the low-grade nuclear war that was waged against both Iraq and Yugoslavia, by means of depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. tanks and warplanes. The radioactive fallout from such weaponry lasts for decades, and is continuing to claim lives today in the parts of the world where it has been deployed.
      There is also the "food warfare" made possible by the development of self-terminating crop seeds by corrupt international seed cartels,  technology that could conceivably cause massive levels of starvation. Then of course there is weather warfare, which some researchers claim America has taken to a whole new level with technology such as the HAARP facility in Gakona, Alaska.
      Then there is the type of environmental warfare that was also deployed against Iraq and Yugoslavia, where chemical facilities were deliberately targeted so as to wage what amounted to indirect chemical warfare. In the Serbian city of Pancevo, and in many other places, environmental catastrophes of previously unseen proportions were deliberately created.
      All of these are quiet killers. The media makes no mention of them and their victims go uncounted. The massive environmental damage that has poisoned the food and the water goes unreported. The 100,000+ children who continue to die in Iraq every year remain out of sight of the American people, just as do those who die every time the United States launches a cruise missile or drops a "smart" bomb.
      While actively promoting an unprecedented level of national mourning for the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, our leaders steer attention away from the fact that every time the United States flexes its military muscle, somewhere in the world a nation mourns. And while the death toll in New York and Washington indeed constitutes a national tragedy, it pales in comparison to the mourning we have caused around the world.
      How much more will we cause now? How many bodies will be added to the millions left dead in Vietnam, Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, the Philippines, Guatemala, Haiti, Chile, and elsewhere? And how many of the Americans who were enraged at footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets will cheer and wave their flags when the bombs begin to fall and the body parts begin to fly?
      How many will stop to wonder who is actually on the receiving end of the bombs? How many will realize that the scene in New York that so horrified them is being reproduced on an unimaginable scale, and that it is civilians, once again, who are being buried in the rubble? And how many will occasionally stop to ponder how the German people could have been led like lambs to support such atrocities?

Ed's note: The Palestinians dancing in the street took place in 1991. It was provided to you to continue the propaganda which has been so successful in the past.