CONNECTING THE DOTS

CONNECTING THE DOTS

By Peter Fredson

February 9, 2006

The man hitting himself on the head with a hammer was asked why he was doing it. He replied: “Because it feels so good when I stop.” This country is hitting itself on the head but can’t seem to stop.

Yesterday evening I accidentally tuned in to Larry King who was conducting a live TV report. It showed a number of people in an underground garage milling about, some looking bored, others anxious. They had been working in the Senate Office Building when a sensor alarm went off, indicating some nerve agent had been detected.

The security staff immediately evacuated the offices and herded the occupants, including 9 senators, into the garage for further investigation.

Larry King had a number of people, including Sanjay Gupta; report on what were nerve agents, the differences between chemical and biological agents, the possible physical effects, and suppositions as to the origin.

Later other news services resuscitated people from previous incidents, including witnesses to the Japanese nerve agent attack, then put on a host of supposed experts, professors, chemists, biologists, doctors of medicine, military men, etc. Everything was done calmly, yet over the calm there crept an apprehension. It was reported that the stock market reacted to the news and even Senator Trist came on the TV to give his opinion as a surgeon although this time he didn’t offer a glass of water to victims.

TV showed a number of trucks arriving with equipment for fighting nerve agents. People got into yellow bulky suits and breathing apparatus, looking like yellow Godzillas. They milled about rather aimlessly.

Finally someone gave the all-clear signal and a spokesperson said there had been a false alarm. However, before all the sequestered people were released they were cautioned to keep careful account of their physical state for the next few days, and even months. Some nerve agents take minutes for an effect, others days, and some take months. You can imagine the mental state of all those who now must carefully monitor any symptoms like runny noses, vomiting, headache, itches.

Turns out it was a false alarm. Connecting the dots between false alarms many people have found strange correlations between terror alarms and Bush administration troubles. We know that the brilliant solution to terror attacks was to turn on different colored lights. This let the public know when to go shopping and when to spoil their underwear with fright. And strangely, each false alarm coincided with some Bush difficulty in popularity. False alarms serve admirably to keep a failing President in power.

The Karl Rove strategy to win the forthcoming 2006 elections was to incessantly mention 9/11 and to allege that Bush somehow was protecting people against further attacks. Bush has followed this strategy faithfully.

What is the difficulty this time that needs a lot of fright to get the public with the program? Well, Bush during the SOTU 2006 gave many promises. He promised compassion for the aged, sick, poor, illiterate, etc with lots of budget space to solve all problems, including New Orleans. But the very next day problems occurred making several promises practically null or void.

Then Bush announced the greatest spending display in the history of the world. About 80% of our budget would be dedicated to making weapons of destruction, more effective troops, cruise missiles, planes, tanks, munitions, etc. and most of the money will go to large corporations, which by coincidence are huge contributors to Republican campaigns. The poor, aged, sick, illiterate, etc. would be partially accommodated but most would be tossed in the garbage, with further cuts in the following months.

The howls of outrage from anyone, Republican or Democrat or Green Party, will be effectively drowned out by the cries of fright over imminent war with Iran and Syria, terror over biological and chemical weapons being used over Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Los Angeles, New York and other places where tens of thousands could die writhing in agony. The only remedy will be the courageous leadership of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Karl Rover and assorted neocon corporate brutes.

For anyone paying attention, we know that the neocon and Bush plans for world domination included invasions of Iran and Syria, long before 9/11 We know that Condi Rice has been provoking Iran and Syria almost daily, mentioning her famous mushroom clouds, and threatening ferocious responses against deadly attacks of Iranians.

We know that recently other Republicans, like McCain, cognizant of the upcoming elections, have also begun the war dances which were performed just prior to the invasion of Iraq.

We know that mere mention of 9/11 is sufficient for our arrogant President to show disdain for any legalities which prevented him from “protecting” our republic. We also know that “protecting” our republic includes torture and abuse, kidnapping, indefinite detention, secret jails, surreptitious overflights of sovereign countries, the sending of missiles into any country that Bush pleases, wire-tapping, reading private mail, looking up library records, secret surveillance of Americans at work or play or in their bedrooms.

So, I may be wrong in my assessment that this false alarm about nerve gas is all coincidental, and is not designed by some Karl Rove assistant to deceive the public into another. I know that connecting many dots on a sheet of paper can result in many different designs. But I also know that part of the Bush strategy for retaining Republican domination and reviving his popularity polls, is deceit, misinformation, executive privilege, secrecy, dirty tricks, and outright lies.

Let’s see what happens next.