some highlights from the comments

* some highlights from the comments

damien:

"Noise, I agree with you that something is desperately wrong with the Bush admin that goes way beyond ineptitude or greed...

It has all the signs of a fascist state in the wings.

Perhaps they plan a nuclear attack on the US as a trigger for all this, but are struggling to find a way to make it credible?"

in a different post, here's miguel:

"I am more open to the idea that an off-the-shelf, kind of informal network associated with people like Perle and Feith collaborated with the Islamic extremists to ensure that 9-11 could be pulled off without a hitch."

which is a similar idea to damien's RogueNet theory

In a different post, oldschool has some venting to do, including:

"c) I saw a Zogby poll today, taken from U.S. troops currently in Iraq. 85% of the troops describe their mission as being to punish Saddam for his complicity in the 9-11 attacks.
Gee, I wonder where they got that idea? Impeachment is *way* too good for these bastards - I want to see several somebodies swinging from the end of some ropes in the Hague."

jeebus! we need to organise screenings of "Why We Fight" in every base in the iraq. apparently the scene of the father's realisation that saddam had nothing to do with 911 is quite powerful - and we need to bump Limbaugh et al of mil.radio and put scott horton and meria and airamerica etc in its stead. In fact, even that won't be enough, because most of those soldiers have spent a long time in America since 911, and even since the invasion 3 years ago.


And riffing off Maha, Chillout takes us for a lovely religio-existentialist trip:

"Then what we don't know provides meaning to what we know. Only then do we understand how little we know. Only then is humility forced upon us. Only then do we understand that humility is the natural and appropriate human condition."

And Teemu:

"If one doesn't believe in gov't, he can still be part of it for ideological reasons too.

You cant sink the huge dreadnought that the gov't is by swinging your clenched fists and throwing rocks at it. The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

However, if you're the captain, you can take the ship's wheel and ram the thing against nearest iceberg or rock."

Thanks everyone :-)