Why Noam Chomsky is Dead Wrong About 911!

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

"I mean even if it [US GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY IN THE 9/11 ATTACKS] were true, which is extremely unlikely, who cares? I mean it doesn't have any significance."

-Noam Chomsky

Noam, I care! I care because the very document that created the United States --the US Constitution --tells us in precise and legal language that the American people are 'sovereign'. If the US government --the 'hired hands' whom we, the people, have tasked with the day to day job of governance --is in any way complicit in the attacks of 911, then the crimes of mass murder and high treason have been perpetrated against the people! That matters! If 911 was an inside job, then we have no legitimate government! I call that 'significance'!

Noam, you have, in fact, said that the crime of 911 should not be investigated. If 911 should not be investigated then no crime should be investigated. If no crime should be investigated, then the rule of law means nothing. You have granted to Bush and other known criminals arbitrary, illogical and illegal exceptions to the rule of law. The consequences are disastrous. The 'rule of law', by definition, applies to all or it applies to none!

If you disagree, Noam, please explain to the American people how the exceptions are chosen and justified; upon what dubious principle are they derived? Since when and upon what hypocritical standard are the crimes of mass murder and high treason ignored? Since when are overt criminals given a pass? A 'two tiered' system of justice is an oxymoron! And that, again, is highly significant!

It is highly significant that Noam Chomsky has not said that Bush and his administration were innocent of the crime of 911! His position --as I understand it --is that it just doesn't matter. If any murder matters, this one matters! If any MASS murder matters, this one matters. If the Reichstag Fire mattered, 911 matters. It matters even if Bush were innocent and more so if he is guilty. 911 matters!

This is not only a moral and a philosophical issue, it's a legal one. If the 911 culprits are not investigated, charged, tried and sentenced, a horrible precedent will have been set. We will have sent 'government' a signal that says: "You are no longer responsible to the electorate and the people are no longer sovereign"! It follows inexorably and logically, that if the people are no longer sovereign, then the rest of the US Constitution is invalid. The Constitutional commentary by the venerable Joseph Story is absolutely correct that the Constitution --the Preamble specifically --established as a matter of law the sovereignty of the people themselves.

The preamble never can be resorted to, to enlarge the powers confided to the general government, or any of its departments. It cannot confer any power per se; it can never amount, by implication, to an enlargement of any power expressly given. It can never be the legitimate source of any implied power, when otherwise withdrawn from the constitution. Its true office is to expound the nature, and extent, and application ofthe powers actually conferred by the constitution, and not substantively to create them

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States

It is the principle upon which everything else in the Constitution follows and is based. If the Constitution is 'invalid', then the United States government is illegitimate, the US is not a nation, no law is valid, no tax is just, no expenditure for public purposes is legal. That Bush sought to expand his power far beyond the express powers of the executive is an undisputed matter of fact and record. He could not have done so without 911! It matters!

Noam, if your house were burgled or set fire to, it would matter to you to ensure that the culprits are caught and brought to justice. The people of the US have sustained more egregious offenses against their persons. Some three thousand in New York were murdered. No doubt you support the prosecution of 'lone gunmen' but oppose the prosecution of murderers if they are assisted by government bureaucracies and/or officials!

It matters! The memory of victims demand that the truth of 911 be known! Millions care! I care! And so should you!

Elsewhere, with 911 every man, woman and child in the United States were denied the benefits of legitimate government!

It matters if Bush benefited in any way from 911. It matters whether or not he was complicit just as it matters if any other criminal is complicit in any other crime.

Following 911, the Bush administration set upon a campaign consisting of aggressive war abroad and the dismantling of legitimate government at home --both made possible upon the 911 pretext. Who cares? The living relatives of some 1.5 million Iraqis whom even Bush cannot credibly claim had anything to do with 911. But dead they are! It matters!

The fact, remains, however, that Bush might never have consolidated his coalition against Saddam had he not made the untruthful claim that Saddam had WMD. Additionally, he could never have claimed Saddam had WMD had he not been 'positioned' by the events of 911. It matters!

The impending financial collapse of the US is traced directly to the events of 911! But --as you say --who cares? I suspect that when the facts about 911 are investigated and made public, the number of those caring a great deal about those facts will increase by some one million each month, the number of those expected to begin losing their jobs each month! That's because Bush/GOP policies of greed and elitism held sway after 911. These are, specifically, policies like 'supply side' tax cuts' which benefit an increasingly tiny GOP elite. The 'tax cuts' and those who benefit from them owe much to 911! Who cares? Quick response: the millions now thrown out of work care a great deal! It matters!

There is no indication that this blood letting will level off at one million job loses per month. This sort of thing has a tendency to increase exponentially as did job losses following the crash of 1929. The nation cannot long sustain this. The collapse has begun and that is why every person in the world should care about who and why 911!

Some things are better NOT rebuilt --the Roman Empire and the Third Reich are but two examples. Buildings are simply the way in which bricks, mortar, and steel are arranged. But institutions, like the Roman Empire, may be lasting --but only for as long as they are required. Rome outlived its usefulness; the Third Reich --its welcome. The US may have outlived its welcome AND its usefulness. We will never understand its precipitous fall unless we first understand 911. It matters!

I would like to ask Noam Chomsky to explain on what basis he contends that 9/11 is irrelevant and how Howard Zinn can state that it's "in the past" (certainly an odd position for a historian). Their position seems at odds with the current paradigm:

Obama recently promising billions in "aid" for Afghanistan: "the Afghan farmer hasn't seen any improvement in his life"

Tom Brokaw responds:

"Here's something else that Afghan farmer has never seen nor have any of his ancestors ever seen this: foreign powers coming into Afghanistan and being effective and staying very long."

--An Open Letter to Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn

Apres US, le deluge! Many will be swamped. We would hope that the 'survivors' will make a better world but will not, cannot if 911 remains a mystery, an unsolved crime of unspeakable evil and cruelty! If not, this will all be repeated as it has, in fact, repeated throughout history.

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it!"

--Georges Santayana, American Philosopher

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