The World’s Facing Terror

Bin Laden been happenin in Manhattan
Crack was anthrax back then, back when
Police was Al'Qaeda to black men
While I was out there hustling sinning with no religion
He was off the wall killing for a living

I am a real American. I mean a -died in the wool- red, white and blue -love it or leave it with my trucker’s hat and Budweiser in the can- American. Not really the stereotype of a young black male surviving in “Amerikkka.” And that is by design. My maternal grandfather fought France in World War II, my other was a Harlem Globetrotter. We are old-school Americans.

I mean I am so American, I litter and care little for the environment. I eat Mc Donalds and litter. If I owned Rite Guard, it would still be in aerosol cans. Ozone? Ozone was in Breakin’ II Electric Boogaloo. America! Fuck yeah!

So what does a man who was raised on G.I. Joe (Knowing IS half the battle), and Rambo (both the movies AND the cartoons) do when he wakes to discover that we are being hoodwinked…bamboozled… That we didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us… I’ll tell you…An American uses what remains of his Constitutional rights to inform other Americans what is going on. So that’s what I’m gonna do.

I’m sure we have all heard of “think tanks.” But how many of us know what they are? And more importantly, how they bear on my post today (because, as you all know, it is all about me. And this is a self-aware digression.). Think tanks are generally non-profit entities that, for all intents and purposes, finance scholarly research. Anything entity who has the word “institute”, “commission”, or “project” in its name is likely a think tank. Many think tanks are benevolent in purpose. And all think tanks have a point of view to promote; global warming, aids is bad, homosexuality is bad, homosexuality is good, black people are inferior, America is God’s gift to the world, America is bad. In fact there are so many think tanks that just about any point of view can be expressed at any time. Hell, I think I am going to start my own and call it, The Fell Clutch Institute of Intellectual Development and Sonnyredd Upliftment Project.” Sounds real good, huh? And impressive, too.


Well, think tanks don’t just fund scholarly research. Oh, not by a long shot. Hell, if that is all they did, there wouldn’t be much upside. No my friends, think tanks form and shape the policies of your government. That is what they were created to do. Ever wonder why Christian Evangelicals are pro-lower taxes. Jesus never said, “Let not Caesar taxeth yon capital gains.” Matter fact, he said render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. But it was some scholarly paper written by some middle aged ex-ivy league professor that tied together two disparate communities, the Evangelicals and the Billionaires, into one heck of a un-holy alliance. (Unless of course, you’re T.D. Jakes. And this is a righteous indignation digression.)

So what do they do once they have cobbled together years of bad research? Give it to the only sons of bitches who are stupid enough to believe it. That’s right, your politicians. And there, my friends, is where the up-side is. Shaping political thought. Making policy.

In and of itself, it isn’t a bad thing. I am in favor of educating the ignorant. It’s like intellectual affirmative action. Give a politician some semblance of fact, and the perfectly coiffed empty suit has a thought. That is a good thing.

Cept’ when the empty suit in question takes bad counsel. And it’s made even worse when said empty suit is the most powerful man on the planet.

For instance, take the Project for a New American Century. It’s a perfectly innocuous (S.A.T. word alert…means harmless. And this is alternately a “And now you know” or “Condescending bastard” digression depending on whether or not you knew that.) name. Sounds like a bunch of Mormons got together with Mennonites and Quakers to form some good-will association. Like the ultimate American Homeowners Association, without the politics.

But alas, names can be deceiving. See, according to William Cristol, the project’s chairman:

The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.

The Project for the New American Century intends, through issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars, to explain what American world leadership entails. It will also strive to rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world.

Lets break that down, shall we? “American leadership is good both for America and for the world…” What kind of leadership? Why, “American world leadership,” of course. Silly heads. And how would we accomplish this world leadership? Why, “military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle,” of course.

So, America, first through force of arms, and then through diplomatic negotiations, will lead the world according to moral principle. Fuck you and bullshit!

See, Bill Cristol would have been better served to use the theme to Team America: World Police as his opening statement. Sing along with me, now:

America, fuck yeah!
Comin' again to save the motherfucking day, yeah!
America, fuck yeah! Freedom is the only way, yeah!
Terrorists, your game is through, 'cause now you have to answer to / America, fuck yeah!
So lick my butt and suck on my balls! / America, fuck yeah! What you gonna do when we come for you now!
(Courtesy of IMDB.com)

Now, I am not opposed to this attitude. Hell, I have it. America is the biggest and baddest on the block. Damn right! Hell Yeah and Yee Haw!

But…we are not equipped to be the police force of the world. Hell policing the damn world is how we lost the damn towers in the first fucking place.

And do you know why we are not equipped? Because we have no sense of history. As a land, we have been around for 450 years, as a country, a mere 230 years. There are corporations in the world who have corporate debt older than us.

And as a result, our perspective is skewed. Skewed, so much in fact, that we are far more married to our notions of right and wrong than the world should ever be subject to.

The Project for the New American Century wants America to rule the world and spread freedom. But, who’s freedom? And how do you force a country to adopt our notions of freedom, particularly when we ain’t all happy with our “morals” as it is? Essentially, they want the rest of the world to have the same government as we do. And this is wrong.

I am no friend to militant Islam, but I have to respect a people’s right to choose for themselves that form of government. I am no fan of Socialism or communism, but I recognize that in very limited environments, such governments work well for the people. Or at the very least, the people deserve a shot at making that choice for themselves.

If Bill Cristol gets his way, we’ll be the Roman Empire all over again. And all Empires must fall. Ask the British.

And why, friends, do I waste your time AND mine, railing against some stupid think tank that nobody ever heard of? Because, according to wikipedia (and if it is there then it must be true...for the site, click the link above.), these are the members of the Bush White House who are also members of the PNAC:

Elliott Abrams- National Security Council

Richard Armitage - Department of State (2001-2005); Deputy Secretary of State

John R. Bolton - Department of State; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Previously served as Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs in the first administration of GWB

Richard Cheney - Vice President and PNAC Founder

Seth Cropsey - Voice of America; Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau

Paula Dobriansky - Department of State; Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs

Francis Fukuyama - President's Council on Bioethics; Professor of International Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University

Bruce Jackson - U.S. Committee on NATO President

Zalmay Khalilzad - U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq; U.S.Ambassador to Iraq; Previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from November 2003 to June 2005

I. Lewis Libby - Former Chief of Staff for the Vice President Indicted by Grand Jury on charges of Obstruction of Justice, False Statements and Perjury and resigned October 28, 2005.

Peter W. Rodman - Department of Defense; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security

Donald Rumsfeld - Department of Defense Secretary of Defense; PNAC founder and previously Chairman of the Board of Gilead Sciences Developer of Tamiflu

Randy Scheunemann - U.S. Committee on NATO, Project on Transitional Democracies, International Republican Institute Member; Founded the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.

Paul Wolfowitz - World Bank, President; Deputy Secretary of Defense, 2001-2005

Dov S. Zakheim - Department of Defense, Comptroller; Former V.P. of System Planning Corp.

Robert B. Zoellick - Department of State, Deputy Secretary of State
Office of the United States Trade Representative (2001-2005)

Wow! Quite a list of VIP’s huh? Makes you wonder, really wonder if we really were sold down the river. I cast no aspersions. I will offer no conspiracy theories as to 9/11 (That’s what the comments are for.) But I do point out, with horror, that those involved in shaping our relationship in the world are out to create an American Empire. So, of course there were no WMD's. And of course Saddam knew nothing about Al Queida. And of fucking course, Osama Bin Laden is more valuable alive, instigating and rabble rousing, than dead. He is the "enemy," and to build an Empire, one simply MUST have an enemy.

I also note that a country as schizophrenic and reactionary as ours is ill equipped to provide such leadership. We are great beating an enemy. Ask Germany. Ask Russia. Ask Iraq.

But we ain’t so great at cleaning up the mess. Ask Germany, either one-East or West. Ask Russia. And definitely ask Iraq.