"Terrorism" is used to explain what

"they do to us" to justify what we "do to them,"

or plan to, always deceitfully couched

in terms of humanitarian intervention,

promoting democracy, or bringing other people

the benefits of western civilization

The word “terrorism” serves as a shield

that justifies even the most heinous injustices

These include the illegal occupation and

the slow genocide of the Palestinian people,

the occupation and on-going massacre of Iraqis

and the military occupation of Afghanistan

Any form of resistance to

imperialism and foreign occupation

is loftily conflated with terrorism,

in a type of Orwellian double speak that turns

the colonizer and oppressor into the victim

Terrorism, Propaganda & Lies

The Bush Regime is pandering to the American public with exaggerated misconceptions of worldwide terrorism to frighten us into supporting a global police state.

With seven hundred military bases and a budget bigger than the rest of the world combined, the US military has become the new supreme-power force repressing "terrorism" everywhere.

Cheney's keynote address at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference is a telling example of neo-conservative global dominance thought in the current administration. Here are his exact words,

Israel, and the United States, and all civilized nations will win the war on terror.

To prevail in this fight, we must understand the nature of the enemy. As America experienced on September 11th, 2001, the terrorist enemy is brutal and heartless.

This enemy wears no uniform, has no regard for the rules of warfare, and is unconstrained by any standard of decency or morality.

The terrorists want to end all American and Western influence in the Middle East.

Their goal in that region is to seize control of a country, so they have a base from which to launch attacks and wage war against governments that do not meet their demands ultimately to establish a totalitarian empire that encompasses a region from Spain, across North Africa, through the Middle East and South Asia, all the way around to Indonesia.

Cheney claims that evil terrorists everywhere are plotting for the ruin of "civilized" nations.

In order to stop them we must militarily control all the regions they are threatening in a permanent global war.

Cheney's military empire, set to prevail over the totalitarian terrorists, will inevitably expand global resistance to US domination.

Large coalitions of freedom fighters, fundamentalists, patriots, religious zealots, nationalists, and ideologues of various beliefs will emerge from within the regions the US occupies.

Probably no word better defines or underscores the Bush presidency than "terrorism" even though his administration wasn't the first to exploit this highly charged term.

"Terrorism" is used to explain what "they do to us" to justify what we "do to them," or plan to, always deceitfully couched in terms of humanitarian intervention, promoting democracy, or bringing other people the benefits of western civilization.

Ronald Reagan exploited it in the 1980s to declare "war on international terrorism" referring to it as the "scourge of terrorism" and "the plague of the modern age."

It was clear he had in mind launching his planned Contra proxy war of terrorism against the democratically elected Sandinista government in Nicaragua and FMLN opposition resistance to the US-backed El Salvador fascist regime the same way George Bush did it waging his wars of aggression post-9/11.

It's a simple scheme to pull off, and governments keep using it because it always works.

Scare the public enough, and they'll go along with almost anything thinking it's to protect their safety when, in fact, waging wars of aggression and state-sponsored violence have the opposite effect.

The current Bush wars united practically the entire world against us including an active resistance increasingly targeting anything American.

George Orwell knew about the power of language before the age of television and the internet enhanced it exponentially.

He explained how easy "doublethink" and "newspeak" can convince us "war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength."

He also wrote "All war propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting while Big Brother is watching over us to be sure we get the message and obey it."

In 1946, Orwell wrote about "Politics and the English Language" saying "In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible" to hide what its user has in mind.

So "defenseless villages are bombarded from the air (and) this is called 'pacification'."

And the president declares a "war on terrorism" that's, in fact, a "war of terrorism" against designated targets, always defenseless against it, because with adversaries able to put up a good fight, bullies like the US opt for diplomacy or other political and economic means, short of open conflict.

Dominant media manipulation shapes public perceptions to justify our actions against states we target as enemies when they resist - meaning their wish to remain free and independent makes them a threat to western civilization.

Washington never tolerates rebellious regimes who place their sovereignty above ours or whose internal resistance movements hit back for what we do to them.

Those doing it are called terrorists and are targeted for removal by economic, political and/or military state terror.

Tactics used by the US, or its proxy paramilitaries, involve mass murder and incarceration, torture, and a whole further menu of repressive and economic barbarism designed to crush resistance paving the way for unchallengeable US dominance.

The centerpiece of US Middle East policy has been its full and unconditional support for Israel's quest for regional dominance by weakening or removing regimes considered hostile and its near-six decade offensive to repress and ethnically cleanse indigenous Palestinians from all land Israelis want for a greater Israel.

Towards that end, Israel gets unheard of amounts of aid including billions annually in grants and loans, billions more as needed, multi-billions in debt waved, billions more in military aid.

And state-of-the-art weapons and technology amounting in total to more than all other countries in the world combined for a nation of six million people with lots of important friends in Washington, on Wall Street, and in all other centers of power that count.

It all goes down smoothly at home by portraying justifiable resistance to Israeli abuse as terrorism with the dominant media playing their usual role calling US and Israeli-targeted victims the victimizers to justify the harshest state terror crackdowns against them.

For Palestinians, it's meant nearly six decades of repression and 40 years of occupation by a foreign power able to reign state terror on defenseless people helpless against it.

For Iraq, it meant removing a leader posing no threat to Israel or his neighbors but portrayed as a monster who did with Iranian leaders and Hugo Chavez now topping the regime change queue in that order or maybe in quick succession or tandem.

It's all about power and perception with corrupted language, as Orwell explained, able to make reality seem the way those controlling it wish.

It lets power and ideology triumph over people freely using state terror as a means of social control.

Chomsky quoted Churchill's notion that "the rich and powerful have every right to....enjoy what they have gained, often by violence and terror.

"The rest can be ignored as long as they suffer in silence, but if they interfere with....those who rule the world by right, the 'terrors of the earth' will be visited upon them with righteous wrath, unless power is constrained from within."

One day, the meek may inherit the earth and Churchill's words no longer will apply.

But not as long as the US rules it and media manipulation clouds reality enough to make harsh state terror look like humanitarian intervention.

Or makes self-defense by helpless victims look like they're the victimizers, the "terrorists'. Stephen Lendman @ People's Voice