Time To Keep Calling Out The BS On Neo-Cons And Saudi Arabia

     It's that time of the year again -- the anniversary of "September 11,"  the event that "changed everything."

     Well, did it change everything? No, but I'll be one of the first to agree that it changed a lot.

     One of the big things that changed was that it put the Neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party firmly in control of the agenda of the Bush-43 administration; and thereby put the neo-cons in control of the Consensus National Narrative; and thereby put the neo-cons in charge of the Media-Government, with all its power to control diplomacy, create wars where none existed, lie to the people whenever they want to, and to do the rest of whatever it is they do, whether in secret behind closed doors, or in the open all over the airwaves.

     Their word for it, not mine, is "full-spectrum dominance."  We thought they meant "full-spectrum dominance" over the Bad Guys.  Not really -- it's time to meditate on the real meaning of "full spectrum dominance," sports-fans.  I am part of the "full spectrum" they are dominating.  So are you.  So are our families, our friends, and the people we work with.  We're all in the "full spectrum"  Oh.  Whoa.

     Most people understand, at some level, that the neo-con agenda is a sort of three-legged stool.  Always, without exception, they (and by extension "we", their subjects) are expected to be

     1) Reflexively pro-Wall Street investment bankers --that is to say, Standing For Our American Entrepreneurial Way Of Life
     2) Reflexively pro-Israel -- that is to say, Standing For A Few Hot-heads Who Have Entirely Too Much Influence In The Only Democracy In The Middle East
     3) Reflexively pro-Big War --that is to say,  Standing For the Great Crusade For The Four Freedoms Around The World

     Okay, I understand that a lot of folks are very okay with all of that.  Fine, we'll save that for some other time.

     What some people seem to have overlooked is Point Four.   It is easily overlooked because it is not often mentioned in polite company, or on the talk shows.  Here is Point 4:  The neo-cons are also

     4) Joined at the hip with the (rather wealthy, influential, and ambitious) intelligence network that is the geo-political backbone of the Saudi royal family.

     Remember with me, for a moment, the following facts and factors surrounding September 11, just twelve short years ago.

     A.  Roughly fifteen of the nineteen "hijackers with box-cutters" were from -- remember? -- Saudi Arabia.  ( Read: not Iraq, not Iran, not even Afghanistan)  Why didn't we attack Saudi Arabia?

     B. On September 11, when the entire civil air fleet of the nation was grounded, jets bound for Saudi Arabia were cleared to depart the US and fly away unrestricted.

     C. The Carlyle Group (oil investors, among other things) includes the Bush family and the Bin Laden family, who are their personal friends.  Look it up.  The Bin Ladens are from Saudi Arabia.

     D. The Media-Narrative immediately blamed Osama Bin Laden for 9/11, before any evidence could possibly have been investigated.  Highly placed government people such as Vice President Dick Cheney chimed in.  Osama was a supposedly "rogue" member of the Bin Laden Oil Family.  He may have been "rogue," for all I know -- he was certainly at odds with some of the more materialistic and secular views of his brethren.  What is known is that at the time of the September 11 attacks, he was seriously ill with kidney disease, he was on dialysis, he was in frequent contact with the CIA, and with Pakistani intelligence (also our friends at the time), and his days were numbered.  Knowledgeable people both inside and outside the "intelligence community"  -- that worldwide network of the Keepers Of The Secrets -- noted that he died in December, 2001.  Can we say, "conveniently soon-to-be-unavailable scapegoat," eminently useful to direct attention away from the true perpetrators of the attack?

     E. Nevertheless, the Media-Government Narrative, ten years later, "attacked Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan," then "our Navy Seals killed him," the event was "documented" with suitably staged and re-touched photographs, and "his body was buried at sea," in accordance with "Muslim wishes."  We know all this because Our President Barack Obama and Our Secretary of State Hilary Clinton "saw it happen in real time!"

    Fast forwarding to the present.  Which nation is most actively financing, arming and directing the "rebels" in Syria?

     Hint.  It isn't Turkey.  It isn't Russia.  It isn't Britain or France.  It isn't Israel.  It isn't even the good old US of A.  Now: three guesses -- which nation is most actively arming, training, and directing the "rebels" in Syria?

     Set aside, for a moment, your personal beliefs and commitments, whether for or against, points 1, 2, and 3 above.  Let's go to point 4.  Do you feel a deep personal and patriotic commitment to support the aims and aspirations of the king and government of Saudi Arabia?  (If so, why?  Fun fact:  the US does not need Saudi oil. Not now, and never has at any time in the past.)

     Question to ponder for a moment.  Why do our leaders put US foreign policy at the service of the Saudi royal family?  Is this some sort of Mob thing -- do our guys owe the Saudis big-time for some bad debts?  Or have they secretly converted to the Wahhabist "faith"?  Or is this some kind of world-wide conspiracy?  Or is it just the ignorant goofiness that the top-level Republicans and Democrats always seem to have plenty of?

     I don't know either.  But when things are as weird as they are right now -- when government leaders are doing all kinds of things that are not in the best interests of the people of the United States, I'm asking more questions than ever, and I'm also turning on the BS-meter.  Right now, it is pegging out.

     Some of you have been doing the same thing.  I'd say we represent about 10% of the population, on a good day.  If I had been writing this as recently as two weeks ago, I might have said that now that people are hurting economically, maybe the numbers are climbing to about 20%.

     But here is an interesting thing:  the most recent polls show that over 80% of the people of the United States are opposing our government over its Syria policies and its well-advanced plans for war.

     Over eighty-percent. (Some polls indicate over 90%.)  This means that a clear majority of the people, in just about any demographic you care to name -- poor, middle-class, conservative, liberal, Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist -- are starting to ask questions and express doubts -- perhaps as many as four out of five people you and I know and work with on a daily basis.

     So if you know -- or if you have any good idea -- about what is really going on, I think now is a really good time to keep on calling out the BS whenever and wherever you smell it.  Other people are starting to notice it, too.  Help them out.

     And I suggest that we all keep an eye on the neo-cons and the Saudis.  --it happens.