Long Before

"Insider accounts published in the British, French and Indian media have revealed that US officials threatened war against Afghanistan during the summer of 2001. These reports include the prediction, made in July, that “if the military action went ahead, it would take place before the snows started falling in Afghanistan, by the middle of October at the latest.” The Bush administration began its bombing strikes on the hapless, poverty-stricken country October 7, and ground attacks by US Special Forces began October 19."

Just needed a Pearl Harbor type event PNAC says.

The chant "war planned long before" has been around a while, nearly always in reference to Iraq. We were lied to, tricked, deceived, by Bush and his evil band of Neocons for greed, power, profit, corporate fascism, imperialism, oil, liberation, freedom, hubris, hegemony, empire, because we are good people and want to spread democracy, because "they" attacked "us" – check all that apply, continue on.

Apparently most people believe the war on Afghanistan's Taliban was justified in a Bush photo-op manhunt moment of smokin' out bin Laden, dead or alive. But the strike on Afghanistan was no more legitimate than the war in Iraq.

However, to look closely at Afghanistan might be to look at 9/11. And looking too closely at 9/11 might remind us of those boxcutter totin' fireproof passport packin' extremists who dropped more clues than a trail of Hansel and Gretel-Atta breadcrumbs.

Might remind us that bin Laden immediately denied the attack but then released mini episodes of "Death to America Allah Allah" starring fat and skinny versions of himself. OBL transmitted guilt from his palatial cavern on the steppe then began to quickly disappear down the memory hole to Osama bin forgotten, after a brief stint as material for standup comics. Now his fan club fundamentalists release bulletins when the mostly Anglo need reminding that it's a different world, a world of fear and tell - if it looks suspicious, you know a soda can, t-shirt, brown skinned musicians on a plane, high school art projects, etc.

Many of the widest read "liberal progressive" news sites have no category or column for Afghanistan and those that do post a couple of stories and find the area a little used forum. Talking heads label it the "forgotten war" when they remember to report something on it.

The 911 truthseekers can count on a little anniversary exposure, some Cspan discussion, then fade - becoming JFKish, heard from in even numbered leaps, the 10th anniversary, the 15th, the 20th, etc. Marginalized to a few devoted investigators writing books and theories in the coming decades.

It's as if the public has been hurricaned. Inundated with so many countries, players, plots, lies and theories that we're on rooftops holding help signs as the foul water of a "different world" rises around us. It's not really different in the elite rule of doing business, but the stench reached a new level of awareness.

Yessiree, Iraq is the lie of the century we're told, and this past week or so birthed a new acronym, WHIG, but not everyone has caught yellowcake fever. While others demand to know who forged the Niger documents and await the severing of a few neocon heads (which changes nothing on the platter), some folks want the heads of who really planned those 9/11 planes long before.