Most Important Questions Part 2: Question #7

7. When 9/11 happens once again, America, What will You do?

On 9/11-XX: Reflections of one of “Those Who Were Right” 20 years ago [11sep21]

In the early evening of September 11, 2001 ~ even before President Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office – a series of phone

calls among members of the New Orleans Peace and Social Justice community resulted in a gathering two nites later, on September 13th, of almost 60 “conscious, concerned, and committed Citizens” in the basement of a local church.

And that gathering of “Peacemongers” ~ as the local media termed it~ resulted in a silent, candlelit March for Peace, Justice, and Truth thru the streets of New Orleans that assembled close to 250 people on Saturday nite, the 15th of September, four days after 9/11: easily one of the earliest and biggest Anti-War/Pro-Peace demonstrations in the country at that time.

[Available online at https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/the-peacemongers/article_8cc98238-ab66-5a48-81f0-072ab8552e84.html .]

And “Editor B,” a local independent journalist and filmmaker captured scenes from that March, as well as folks in New Orleans skateboarding, reading poetry, and singing for Peace, Justice, and Truth in the days and weeks after 9/11. [Available online at https://stupidtelevisionshow.com/media/nopeace/ .]

At 10:06 of that video is an extended interview of me on Day 6 of OPERATION ISAIAH 2:4, a projected 168-hour “Fast and Prayer Vigil for Peace, Justice, Truth, Repentance, and Reconciliation” ~ held on Jackson Square in the French Quarter, right across from the Cathedral ~ which began at 7:46 am CDT on Tuesday, September 25, exactly two weeks to the minute after the first airplane crashed

into the World Trade Center, and continued until 7:46 am on Tuesday, October 2. [Note: the interview was preempted for about five minutes by a genuine, traditional New Orleans Jazz Funeral, which made it even better.]

Following the launch on October 7 of Operation Enduring Freedom and America’s assault on the Land, Country, Nation, and Peoples of Afghanistan, Phase Two of OPERATION ISAIAH 2:4 began on October 16, back on Jackson Square by the Cathedral, and continued until November 7 ~ Day 23 of the projected 28 ~ when cut short by illness.

The following is the Opening Statement for Phase Two, which captures exactly What i was attempting to do, and, from the beginning of Phase One, exactly How and Why. It also elaborates on a number of points made in the Editor B video:

ON BEING A CANDLE IN A TIME OF DARKNESS

Opening Statement of Phase Two of Operation Isaiah 2:4

16 October 2001

Three weeks ago today, on the morning of September 25, I began a 7-day fast and prayer vigil, the principal objective of which was to prevent this country from initiating military action in response to the events of September 11. That fast was successfully concluded on October 2, shortly after the decision was made to continue the vigil as long as the threat of military action loomed.

Someone noted that as long as I was fasting, there was no War and the weather in New Orleans was magnificent Once I stopped fasting, the weather turned foul and, on October 7, War began. While I’m not convinced of any direct correlation between my fasting and either peace or the weather, I do believe in my heart of hearts that the acts of individual fasting and prayer can and do impact the entire world.

Accordingly, in a few minutes, at 7:46 – exactly five weeks after the first plane flew into the first building — I will begin a 28-day water and juice fast and prayer vigil for peace, justice, truth, liberty, dignity, repentance, and reconciliation. The purpose of this juice and water fast is to offer up a personal sacrifice as an act of remembrance, repentance, and reconciliation for the victims of the acts of War perpetrated against the people, government, and nation of the United States of America on September 11. It is also for the victims of the acts of War perpetrated by the United States against the people, government, and nation of Afghanistan since October 7.

The purpose of the vigil is to stop there from being any more victims. The cycle of violence must be broken, and I am prepared to put my body where my mouth is to see to it that it is.

For the next four weeks, every day from sunrise to sunset, this spot will be a point to which concerned, patriotic citizens of the United States, citizens of conscience, concern, and commitment, can come to pray, to reflect, to meditate, to begin or to continue the process of recovery, of reconciliation, and of resurrection, and, equally importantly, to analyze, review, and plan action to stop this War.

This is “Phase Two” of OPERATION ISAIAH 2:4. Phase One, of course, began on September 25. Its purpose was to prevent the government of the United States from doing something dumb, from seeking revenge, retaliation, and retribution by military annihilation. The initiation of American military operations in Afghanistan signaled the total failure of that effort to prevent this War.

Therefore, the purpose of this action, of Phase II, will be to stop this War.

This War can be stopped. This War must be stopped. This War will be stopped. It will be stopped when a critical mass of concerned, patriotic American citizens stand up to their government and declare that the only way that this War will proceed is if you kill us first. At that moment, this government will have to confront the reality of whether or not it has enough soldiers and police in its military and security forces who are willing to kill their fellow citizens.

A number of people have complimented me for what they call my bravery in daring to stand alone in a public place declaring an opinion not openly shared by too many other Americans. I deny that my actions are courageous. The people who rushed into the World Trade Center on September 11 to try to save the people trapped in those buildings were courageous. All I’m doing is my duty and responsibility as a concerned, patriotic, citizen of the United States, as a human being, and, above all, as a retired United States Army Non-Commissioned Officer.

Over the past three weeks, a number of other people have denounced me as a traitor and demanded to know why I still cashed my Army pension paycheck if l hated my country so much. Let me say this to all those self-proclaimed super-patriots who wrap themselves in the flag and would wipe their asses with the Constitution: I will stop cashing my paycheck when dissent becomes treason; when American citizens can no longer doubt, challenge, debate, and denounce the policies and actions of their government.

Because on that day I will know that the 28 years I spent in the military service of this nation was a lie. On that day, I will know that the purpose of our military is not to protect the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or the core values and principles of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of dissent. I will know that the purpose of our military is to protect returns on corporate investment and access to markets and resources for the accumulation of economic and political power, control, and domination.

And on that day, I will go to War. I will go to War against those who ~ in their drive to absolute power, complete control, and total domination ~ will not hesitate to sacrifice anybody or anything, even the core foundation freedoms upon which this nation is built.

In the days that I have been at the vigil site since September 25, I have interacted with almost 200 passing tourists and locals. Of those who have offered their opinion about what the United States should do in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, over 90% do not want War.

Contrary to what the media is telling us about poll results, more than 90% of the people I’ve talked to do not want War. They do not want revenge. They do not want a police state.

They want justice. They want accountability. And they want serenity.

They want to know who did this and they want them brought to justice within the law, not as a target for military annihilation. They want an international War Crimes Tribunal and they really want to know who ordered this operation. If it was bin Laden’s organization that did the deed, who was he taking his orders from? Who was he working for? And knowing the history of Ronald Reagan’s Afghan “freedom fighters” against the Soviet Union in the 80s, they want to know exactly when bin Laden and the Taliban stopped working for the CIA.

They also want accountability. They want to know where the FBI, the CIA, the INS, the FAA, the DoD, and all the other agencies whose mission it is to ensure that something like this does not, can not happen, they want to know where they were and what they were doing on September 10. And they want those senior officials in these agencies and in the White House, the Congress, and National Security Council to be held accountable for possible criminal dereliction of duty in failing to detect and prevent, and then stop the attacks of September 11.

Finally, they want serenity. Not just security, but serenity. They want to know that something like this will never, ever, ever happen again, anywhere. Here or anywhere around the world. However, they do not want a police state created in the name of national and personal security. They want their government to do some root cause analysis and determine exactly WHY this happened; how someone could hate us enough to do something like this.

There finally has been a great deal of concern expressed about the proposed Anti-Terrorist Act and the Office of Fatherland, correction, Homeland Security, and the destruction of individual freedoms and liberties implied or proposed as a means of safeguarding Americans against further acts of terror. Lots of folks have wondered if destroying or limiting our basic rights and freedoms wasn’t exactly what the terrorists ~ whoever they are ~ were trying to accomplish in the first place.

I want to be clear as to why I have been here for the past three weeks and will be here for the next four weeks. I am not here to claim or seek any type of leadership: to attempt to create an organization, or serve as the vanguard for some mass movement. I have been and will continue to be here to give hope, to act as an example, and to serve as a proxy.

I am here so that others who also categorically reject President Bush’s false dichotomy that “you are either with US or you are with the terrorists” can know that they are not alone. That they are not alone in refusing to accept that one’s only choice is to be either for War as waged by an international terrorist organization, or else one is for War as waged by the most powerful economic, political, and military superpower in the history of the world.

I am here so that others can know that they are not alone in thinking that there is a third choice, a choice of Peace instead of War, of Justice instead of Revenge, of Truth and Proof instead of Propaganda and Non-negotiable Threats, of Liberty and Dignity instead of Repression and Hatred and Fear as a means to Security, of Reflection and Reconciliation instead of Retaliation and Retribution. I am here so that those many, many people who feel as I do but who ~ for whatever reason ~ cannot be here in their own person, will be represented in the dialogue and debate on what is the appropriate, the necessary course of action for our nation.

I will be here at the “Peace Site” every day for the next twenty-eight from sunrise to sunset. I may even spend a few nights out here just to get a better feel for what it’s like to be a refugee. I invite everyone to come by and join us in prayer, meditation, reflection, dialogue, discussion, and action analysis, review, and planning.

We will be here until this War is stopped. We are beginning to take back this planet. One heart, one mind, one soul, one person, one step at a time.

Thank you.

It is on the grounds of what i wrote, said, and did back immediately after 9/11, and then after Enduring Freedom got started on October 7, that i believe that i can legitimately claim to be among “Those Who Were Right” 20 years ago. Of the entirely too few others, the most important and significant was, is, and ever will be California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the ONLY member of Congress who voted against the Authorization to Use Military Force Against Terrorists [AUMF], which paved the way into first Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then, into Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Equatorial Africa, Yemen, Syria, and who knows where else in “The Forever War.”

Everybody from Bernie Sanders to Ron Paul got that completely and totally wrong. And, of course, the mainstream media of the day was just as totally and completely wrong. But there were a few who saw thru the Bullshit, and challenged it.

However, and having said all that, there is no place of honor or sense of pride in having been “Right” back then ~ twenty years ago ~ about How and Why America’s so-called “Global” so-called “War On” so-called “Terrorism” was, is, and ever will be so totally and completely nor merely WRONG but EVIL.

Very few of those Americans who may have felt or thought that way actually did anything in public ~ demonstrations, marches, vigils, teach- and/or sit-ins, letters to DC or the editor, etc – to express that sentiment. And those very few who did at least try to do something ~ anything ~ were completely tsunamied by the tides of the time.

And they thus failed completely to first prevent that War, then stop it in Afghanistan, then stop it from expanding into Iraq, and then stop anything Beyond. And ~ except for a brief, weekend-long flurry of activity before we went searching for Saddam’s “WMDs”

back in 2003 ~ they have been effectively totally silent ever since.

But “The Forever War” is entering a new Phase: When Russia has sufficiently recovered from the collapse of the USSR ~ and China from the madness of Mao ~ to present very real, credible “Threats” to America’s global, unipolar hegemony since the end of

Cold War I thirty years ago this coming December. And thus looms Cold War II and all that that is guaranteed to involve.

It already is. The day after the last American troop left Kabul, the US House of Representatives approved a $24 billion increase in the Department of Defense’s requested budget of $716 billion for Fiscal Year 2022, to “deal with the threat of Russia and China.” A reward, one can only suppose, for continuing its streak of now going 76 years without winning a single War [unless one calls Grenada, Panama, and Kuwait “Wars”].

In other words, “The Forever War” was, still is, and will ever be nothing but a half-time show between the two Cold Wars to keep the troops engaged, the defense contractors profitably employed, and the American people comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places that many of them can’t find on a map of the world.

When that last American troop left Kabul on August 31, 2021, it was exactly 7,268 days after October 7, 2001, and 7,267 days too late. And those of us who knew 20 years ago ~ that this War was not only legally, ethically, and morally WRONG, but a Lie, Hoax, Sham, and Scam to boot then at its birth, or came to recognize, acknowledge, and accept that fact over the ensuing years ~ did absolutely nothing that ACTUALLY WORKED to end it on anybody’s terms and schedule but America’s Military-Industrial Congressional Complex, its Surveillance-Secrecy-Security Panopticon, and the owners and operators of the folks on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, in the Oval Office and up on The Hill.

Having been “Right” about 9/11 and the launch of “The Forever War” was of zero consequence then, and is even more meaningless today unless that knowledge and understanding can be used to look at what is happening in this Nation and on this Planet today, and see the connections and correlations between what happened that day in September, twenty years ago, and exactly What is happening today, and How and Why it is.

ps: One of the most important things i wrote in late December of 2001 was to become The Most Important Question to be asked by Americans at that time; and remains very near the top of the List of MIQs today, 20 years later:

PARTY LIKE IT’S 1938; Or, What Will You Do, America, When 9/11 Happens Once Again?

On New Year’s Eve, 1938, five years after the people of the Weimar Republic of Germany had experienced their own September 11, there were five kinds of people.

There were those who had been or would be rounded up and sent to the Camps for extermination; and there were those who would be sent to kill and maim and to be killed or maimed in first Poland, the low Countries, and France, and then Russia and the rest of Europe, and ultimately, in the Fatherland, itself; and there were those who would be fire-bombed and carpet-artilleryed into submissive liberation by the Americans and the Russians; and those who were riding the wave of absolute power ascendant, thriving in an atmosphere of arrogant assurances of a Reich that would last for 1,000 years; and finally, there were those who had the foresight or luck or both to get out, to seek refuge and asylum from the insanity, the horror; and the inevitability of chaos, collapse, and destruction.

On New Year’s Eve, 2001, exactly 111 days after the people of the United States of America had experienced their own Reichstag Fire, there were also five kinds of people.

There were those who would in time be rounded up and sent to the Camps for extermination; and there were those who had been or would be sent to kill and maim and to be killed or maimed in first Afghanistan and Iraq, and then Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, and any and/or every place else where “civilization” was under siege, particularly if it had oil, natural gas, water, or any other Currency of the Realm; and there were those who would confront economic collapse, political chaos, and the horror of a nation and a people descending into a Hell of its own design and construct; and those who were riding another wave of absolute power ascendant, [the same people? the same power?] thriving in an atmosphere of arrogant assertions about a so-called War Against so-called Terrorism that would last at least forever, or; failing that, until The End a/Time; and finally, those who would avoid all that by leaving while they could.

So… . What WILL You do, America, when 9/11 happens once again?

What will you do when your government once again fails its Constitutionally-mandated duty and responsibility to preserve and protect the Life, Liberty, and Property of America’s citizens from all enemies, foreign and domestic? Will you meekly and absent-mindedly accept the fact that, once again, not one single elected politician, not one single entrenched civilian or military career bureaucrat, not one single anointed political appointee is to be held accountable or made to be responsible and to pay for his or her failures?