9/11 Ten Years on

The tenth anniversary of September 11 gives us the opportunity to make a brief assessment of that tragic event and the ten-year history of imperialism that followed it.

First, it should be noted that the official version of events doesn’t hold up. This was enshrined in the report of the Commission on September 11, which opened and closed its enquiry with a haste that was, at the very least, suspicious. The finding that we "knew nothing, we were surprised to the point of not being able to respond quickly to attacks" is false. Between July and early September of 2001, dozens of alerts reached the White House from secret service organisations around the world which insisted that attacks would be made on sensitive targets (including the Twin Towers) directly through the hijacking of civilian aircraft. The story of a plane crashing into the Pentagon is an insult to human intelligence. No plane, much less a DC8, would be able to enter the defense ministry causing a 5 metre diameter hole, leaving the facade of the building and windows outside the hole intact whilst it "evaporated" to nothing.

But this is not the point, however it happened: in the impossible official version or as claimed by conspiracy theorists that everything was made up by the U.S. government itself, or that they knew about the threats and allowed them to take place ... September 11 presented the opportunity on a silver platter for U.S. imperialism to pursue its energy objectives through the use of force in the name of fighting terrorism. It could also take advantage of the then recent implosion of Soviet imperialism and the inconsistency of the European version. In quick succession, while all factors of the future financial and economic crisis were preparing many other disasters, while the “in house” theorists such as Kagan and Wolfowitz were putting on paper the political line of the aggressive Bush administration (that the U.S. has the right to pursue its interests in any area of ​​the world and defend them with the use of force without having to answer to anyone), the two oil campaigns in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) were launched. Leaving aside all the stories about September 11, if it had not taken place they would have had to invent it.

The ten and seven years wars that have followed have produced hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, untold suffering to the people, misery and hunger for millions of proletarians who have just suffered the consequences of war, all crushed in the iron grip of imperialist interests. That things then went differently than the U.S. government expected is part of another story. Both in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. imperialism, despite the enormous expenditure of men, equipment and financial capital, has not been able to satisfy its appetites.

The current administration has had to revise its former ambitions. President Obama is gradually dismantling the U.S. military presence in the two theatres of war. The financial and economic crisis has given the coup de grace to what was for decades the most powerful and voracious imperialism in the world. The dollar continues to be the official currency for international trade, but it comes off badly in competition with the euro and the yen. Many countries, including China, India, South America and some of the Middle East oil, plead the need for a new international currency to replace the dollar as speculation is oriented on raw materials, gold and other safe commodities.

In conclusion, the September 11 tragedy with its burden of innocent victims, should have been the springboard for American imperialism’s attempt to consolidate control of the international oil and natural gas markets, to reaffirm the role of the dollar in the international money market, to continue to drain surplus parasitically from the four corners of the earth, to continue to sustain an economy based on debt and speculation that is close to collapse. In fact it has turned into its opposite. The crisis of low rates of profit has continued to proceed, undisturbed by swelling speculative activity. This has done nothing to shift the financial basis of the explosive effect of the crisis, which in turn, has returned to the ground that had stimulated it, the real economy, thus creating the conditions for the most serious crisis since World War II.

On September 11, today the international bourgeoisie society is preparing to commemorate the symbol of a decadent capitalist society, in both its economic crisis and political identity. It is a commemoration for crying crocodile tears about the nearly three thousand deaths in the Twin Towers, which glorifies the victory over international terrorism to hide the true meaning of its wars, its economic failure, its arrogance and the political imperative today will be to make the world proletariat pay the price for it.

FD

Comments

' should have been the springboard for American imperialism’s attempt to consolidate control of the international oil and natural gas,'

Why is there a 'the'? Is this a translation from Italian? best fix it up a bit . Likewise, applying 'Ministry of Defense' to the US (if that is what was meant) is also very odd.

Thanks for the corrections. Inthe haste to get this out on Sept 11 a word was missed out from the sentence and we had not spotted it. As to the Ministry of Defense the Italian had it in small letters and it was just reflex to make it capitals. We hope the correction sounds better. We have retained the US spelling - in old English it would be "defence" - if that makes it better.

The story of a plane crashing into the Pentagon is an insult to human intelligence. No plane, much less a DC8, would be able to enter the defense ministry causing a 5 metre diameter hole, leaving the facade of the building and windows outside the hole intact whilst it “evaporated” to nothing.

I've never heard this before.(Where have I been?) The BBC had it in a documentary on Sunday. I took no notice as it was only the BBC. But now you, the ICT, are saying it. This makes me sit up. But then you say: it's not the point! But there's a sort of point. Are we now all so used to the bourgeoisie's incredible lies, that when they make whole planes disappear hardly anyone notices, or seems to care... Well it beggars belief. As Jock might say : its like Alice in Wonderland.

That attack on the Pentagon story was absurd. The neat little hole in the side of the Pentagon looks a lot like where a Tomahawk missile, fired from a naval vessel offshore would've struck leaving a large hole and the smell of burnt cordite everywhere.

I thought four planes crashed on sept.11. If the fourth one didn't crash into the Pentagon, where did it go?

Let's not get hung up on the conspiracy theory. There are plenty of eyewitnesses who were driving past who saw a plane hit the Pentagon. The strange faliure to answer the questions about why so little of the plane was left is not significant to the argument as the original text makes clear - it was a glorious opportunity to carry out a plan that had already been mooted by the oil interests who dominated the White House.

This is quite true. As far back as the seventies at least there was a concerted dominance of anti-arab propaganda in the US press. As far back as the Fifties the Dulles brothers in the US State Department were proposing that the US ally itself with fundamentalist warlords against the USSR. The relationship with the Ba'ath Party to the US is just as old. In 1987 the US government foreign policy makers were talking about about how the enemy of "Communism" needed to be replaced by the enemy of "terrorism" and doing so openly. 9/11 is the very symbol of the arrogance, greed and capitalist decline. Fortunately I know nobody in the US that gave 9/11 a single thought, aside from having had to hear about it in the media constantly. Its patriotic propaganda value seems to have ended years ago, now it seems more as if the bourgeoisie is just scratching at an old wound sustaining a war that never ends.

Quite frankly I am amazed comrades in the ICT are saying that a plane did not hit the Pentagon and astonished it is in your press! Because the bourgeoisie lie along with the dominant media, distort reality, tell comedy half truths and so on does not mean we as communists should jump to wild conclusions. We are supposed to be the most critical and determined! If you have something to say, rely on facts, testament, witnesses and so on.

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Or perhaps they are all CIA agents eh?

You should all be asking yourselves why you have come to the conclusions that you have.

RC

What conclusions are you talking about? The article actually says

But this is not the point, however it happened: in the impossible official version or as claimed by conspiracy theorists that everything was made up by the U.S. government itself, or that they knew about the threats and allowed them to take place … September 11 presented the opportunity on a silver platter for U.S. imperialism to pursue its energy objectives through the use of force in the name of fighting terrorism

Subsequent posters (not ICT members) though fixated on the DC8 issue because at least one had not even heard about the plane hitting the Pentagon. I now wish we had not mentioned it. The official version is that the plane actually hit a huge generator before it hit the building and this ripped off the wings hence only the fuselage penetrated the wall. Despite the dodgy behaviour of the state over this it is probably the case but I am not expert enough to be certain. Anyway the "conclusion" is as above ...

My point and fustration is "however it happened". We know what happened, listen to the witnesses. You are being soft on frankly absurd and reactionary conspiracies. Personally I think the 'conspiracy theory' around all the 9/11 terrorism are a mix of racism - how could such people carry out such an attack and who would dare attack the US, we are freedom lovers, spread democracy, give the most aid in the world etc. It is that people can't compute why it happened and don't give credit others would be competent enough to carry out. This is the ideology I think. And it is no surprise the key purveyors of this shit are often conservative, right wing and religious. It has even become a nice little niche 'industry' for some lending to new 'theories' and a perpetuation of bullshit to keep the money coming in.

I am listening to the witnesses. I already said so. All our comrade said was that it did not seem credible that the jumbo that hit the Pentagon disappeared (and the amount of wreckage was small) leaving only a 5 metre hole. I can see how this may have happened but it is not the main thrust of what he or we are trying to say. Which is why I wish he had not made the aside - especially if sensible people are making too much of it. The key thing is that the whole episode was orchestrated to fit an already identified policy goal - or do you think that is a conspiracy too (this time of the left)?

I don't think anything was orchestrated. I think the events were used as a reason and excuse - a pre-text that's all. I do not think the attacks were welcomed in a general sense or advanced by the bourgeoisie. It's very difficult to go much further without reading classified documents and so on. As far as the dominant media are concerned, they will generally reguritiate the state line, have a blind faith etc their class position also plays into it all. The BBC or whoever talking about terrorism, dirty bombs and so on is just as much a problem of form as it is content. Replaying news items over and over, the style of reporting, who they talk to etc - like whoever it was that said it: "if you say something often enough it becomes true". I also generally think the bourgeoisie does not have to have such huge reasons or exuses to act in the way they do. I think they generally do as they please regardless. Most reasoning of their actions seemingly gets plucked out of the air after the fact and it's usually any old nonsense.

Sorry I did not make myself clear. I was talking about what happened AFTER 9/11 re for example the attack on Iraq (which had no connection with it). I am also with you in that I believe that cock up rather than conspiracy dominates what is happening amongst our rulers. This is the result not only of the deep material contradictions arising from the nature of the mode of production but also these contradictions give rise to superstructural rivalries, antagonisms, short term solutions etc which conspire (if I may use that word!) to create unsought outcomes (e.g. the attack on Iraq has produced exactly the opposite of what its authors intended by weakening rather than strengthening pax americana). I take your point re form and content but it is though not accidental how the media line is so consistent when it comes to the repetition of a version of events (and then we find out a different version 30 years later). But Marx explained that better than me in the German Ideology

If you mean there are contingency plans or outright strategy then I agree. For example one of the documents that was released by Wikileaks was a 'fact book' on the northern part of Korea detailing everything you would associate with military usefulness. Weapons, capabilities, predictions on tactics and fighting etc etc.

Especially, the US state is the most powerful in terms of war and no doubt the information and potential plans it has is immense. Just think of all the 'agencies' that exist, the numbers of troops, the high-tech weaponry - they don't just deploy this stuff out of thin air.

Point taken!