The Political Capital of 9/11

From the latest Norman Soloman essay via ZNet:

Recent news about Halliburton and Bechtel cashing in on the occupation of Iraq is a counterpoint to revelations that the White House strongly pressured the Environmental Protection Agency in the days after 9/11 to mislead the public about dangers of airborne toxic particles from World Trade Center debris. The EPA’s Office of the Inspector General reported last month that “the desire to reopen Wall Street” was a major factor in the Bush administration’s misleading assurances. Although the public was told that everything had changed, powerful elites gave the highest priority to resuming business as usual.

After September 11, while many thousands of people grieved the sudden loss of their loved ones, a steady downpour of politically driven sentimentality kept blurring the U.S. media’s window on the world. Politicians in high office, from President Bush on down, rushed to identify themselves with the dead and their relatives. Cataclysmic individual losses were swiftly expropriated for mass dissemination.

In a cauldron of media alchemy, the human suffering of 9/11 became propaganda gold. Sorrow turned into political capital.

For the entire essay, click here.

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