-Caveat Lector- ------ Forwarded Message From: "Lyle Stewart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 02:21:46 -0400 Subject: the unpublished column Dear friends and readers: I am sending you this column because I know you or you have previously written to me about my work; either to praise, criticize, or debate (and it's all welcome). My column that should have been published today was pulled by Gazette management for reasons I don't completely understand. Thus I am publishing it on my own, for a somewhat smaller readership. Lyle Stewart September 14 column Quebec City seemed like a good place to escape the world for a couple days this week. Safe behind the thick fortifications in the romance of the old town, my new wife and I could briefly concentrate on enjoying life together away from the deadlines, headlines, and stress of home. We were ensconced in the Maison James Thompson, a bed and breakfast operated by my friends Greg and Guitta Alexander. On our arrival, Greg excitedly pointed out a "murder hole" he had discovered during recent renovations, an approximately eight-inch square hole in the wall (itself about three feet thick) that would fit a musket. James Thompson was the British chief engineer of the fortifications after the Conquest, and he was a careful man. Thompson had built this house in 1793 with provision for house-to-house fighting should his outer wall ever be breached. We would be safe here. Or so we thought. After breakfast Tuesday morning, Greg asked me if I had been following the news. No, I was deliberately ignoring the news, in fact. Well, he replied, the World Trade Center towers in New York had collapsed and the Pentagon was burning. We all laughed at his apparent joke. What a kidder. Then he suggested we look at the TV. And the world came rushing in. The idea that centuries-old stone could protect us from a media onslaught is whimsical, of course. It may seem a little obvious to point out today, but it strikes me that George W. Bush's plan for protecting the United States from the inevitable results of its superpower games is just as foolish. There will be many more I-told-you-so's. Just last week, The Gazette reported on former U.S. senator and presidential hopeful Gary Hart's speech in Montreal warning of a major terrorist attack that would kill thousands and wreak major changes in American society. Hart forecast a massive outcry for the government to act, and an unprecedented crackdown by the authorities. "We will be spied on, our privacy will be gone; that will have a huge impact on our society." To be sure, Hart gave all this a fairly loose timeline of the next "25 years." He likely didn't expect to have to shorten it to six days. The president will now, no doubt, get his extra billions for whatever military program his lobbyist friends deem necessary. Civil liberties will be stepped on, probably in permanent fashion. And more misery will be inflicted on populations that have already been driven to startling desperation, in turn producing more motivated martyrs willing to die for their cause. It's instructive to note that in most states the U.S. accuses of harboring or fostering terrorism, American realpolitik has played a key role in triggering such implacable hostility. From the U.S. support for the brutal Shah of Iran, to the arming of and then war with Iraq's Saddam Hussein, to the one-sided support for Israel in its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the U.S. has helped create the conditions for desperate men bent on revenge. If, as seems plausible, Osama Bin Laden's group is behind this attack, the irony will be complete. The CIA, as with so many other monsters around the world, helped created Bin Laden and his network during the Soviet debacle in Afghanistan. That country is now a smoking ruin, controlled by some of the most backward and violent men on the planet. Likewise, American statecraft saw wisdom in carpet bombing southeast Asia (immensely contributing to the rise of Pol Pot), supporting and directing proxy armies in Latin America that murdered tens of thousands of innocents, and installing brutal client regimes throughout the world who would ensure their people stayed in poverty. Those chickens are coming home to roost. Poverty, repression, and the absolute lack of hope are fertile conditions for extremism, no matter which religion or creed exploits it. The American people deserve our help and our sympathy now. But this must also be an opportunity to explore how real security is attained. Not even a perfect missile defence system could have defended against an attack that in all of its horror, had an elegant simplicity. No matter how big, how high, how thick Bush builds a wall around the United States, the world will inevitably intrude. ------ End of Forwarded Message <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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