With each cartoon I draw, I can never tell whom I might piss off next. Most of the time, I get compliments, and a few people will demur a dissenting opinion, but nothing too strong nor too far from my own point of view.

But so many of my fellow lefties buy into one 9-11 conspiracy theory or other, I have a feeling this one will stomp on a few toes.

So be it. My main problem with much of the 9-11 truth seeking is not that reasonable questions are asked about government bungling, cover-ups, or disinformation. Goodness knows there is precedent. But it’s the insistence on the improbable, the outlandish, the completely fucking nuts, and the inevitable whiff of antisemitism that wafts up whenever Israel is mentioned. I am no fan of Israel (or any country, for that matter, even my own), and have been critical of that government’s violence against the Palestinians in past cartoons. But whenever a conspiracy theory gets around to covert activities of “the Jews” — or in this case, the alleged advanced knowledge of the 9-11 disaster by the Israeli embassy — it has gone off the rails like a crazy train.

I suppose I shouldn’t say “theory” as there are many theories, not all of them alike, not all of them equally bat shit, some of them raising reasonable questions. Like the Kennedy assassinations, there are several schools, and many unanswered doubts and loose ends. That’s life, people. One doesn’t have to go far to point out BushAdmin mendacity, maliciousness and a bit of madness on its own. The main contention that 9-11, however pulled off, was a deliberate act of neo-con violence to set the pretext for expansionist wars in the Middle East is a fantasy that distorts facts that are already inflammatory. Yes, the BushAdmin exploited the nation’s fears and pushed us into attacking a country that had nothing to do with 9-11. And they did so on a mountain of lies, distortions, and fraudulent evidence. And they waged the war with utter incompetence and are now trying to salvage their fuck-up in a last ditch effort that belies the fact that the war has long been lost. Such are their real crimes (oh, and, of course, the torture, the domestic spying, the black sites, etc., etc.) We really don’t need wilder scenarios than that, do we?

Tags: 9-11 Truth, September 11th, september eleventh

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 12:08 am and is filed under In Contempt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.