By Debra Sweet
Just what is it we’re being told to "never forget" as we remember the events of 10 years ago? Looking back at what the Bush regime did at the time:
CBS News reported that, on the afternoon of 9/11/01, Donald Rumsfeld ordered the military to draw up plans to attack Iraq. "Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
How about this, directed at any nation or person who would question means taken by the United States in response by George Bush, September 20, 2001: "Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
Rumsfeld, with Known and Unknown; Condoleezza Rice with No Higher Honor; and Dick Cheney, In My Time are hustling books, making the most of the anniversary as an opportunity for re-writing history. We should not miss the opportunity to protest and challenge them, as World Can’t Wait, Code Pink and Witness Against Torture will be doing this month in NYC.
All the security provided these war criminals cannot completely protect them from the wrath of people whose lives have been so dramatically effected by the "war on terror." Ashley Joppa-Hagemann’s husband, Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan for a ninth time this month, but killed himself in June. Ranger Widow Booted From Rumsfeld Book Signing. She cornered Rumsfeld at a military base last month, before being thrown out:
I just grabbed my husband’s funeral program and handed it to him (Rumsfeld) and mentioned that my husband had joined the military because of 9-11 and recently took his life, and his name was Staff Sergeant Hagemann. He said, ‘Oh I heard about that.’ "He didn’t say ‘him’ — he says ‘that,’" she said.
On national news outlets last week, Lawrence Wilkerson, former Colin Powell aide, charged that Cheney, on tour with his book (whom he said was the acting president in Bush’s second term), is afraid of standing trial for war crimes. Cheney, of course, denies that. Glenn Greenwald, on Democracy Now last week, characterized him as a criminal: