Re: <nettime> Douglas Ruskoff on 9-11 conspiracy theories

[Michael H Goldhaber <mgoldh@well.com>]

While I agree with both Rushkoff and Geer that the conspiracy theory
undermines anti-war activism with the presumption that Bush and
company are not only mean and scheming but singularly adept, instead
of being amazingly incompetent, I quail at Rushkoff's phrase, "our
adversarsies' increasing strength and prowess" to explain 9-11.
They are not in any clear sense "our adversaries," and rather
than "strength and prowess" the actual 9-11 conspirators had only
cleverness, extreme dedication, and a good deal of luck (including a
clueless US adminstration and very lax airport and aircraft security)
on their side. The main piece of luck was that the WTC towers were far
more destructible than anyone could have reasonably foreseen, owing to
a combination of their very peculiar construction and the inadequate
fireproofing that, after design, replaced the suddenly dangerous
asbestos that would have been used.

It has now been six years since al Qaeda has been able to pull off
such a massive attack, and the fact that nothing approaching it has
occurred in any western country suggests that their "strength and
prowess" is mostly exaggerated for the sake of perpetuating a war
mode in the US. The fact that resistance to occupation continues in
various (bloody) forms in both Iraq and Afghanistan is a different
issue entirely.

Best,
Michael





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