Playing For Time

by Bill Willers

“There are many such things that we understand intellectually but feel we must live as if we didn’t know”. -David Rieff

In the August, 2011 issue of Harper’s Magazine, there’s an article by David Rieff, “After 9/11: The Limits of Remembrance”. In it, the author ponders the fact that all things …. people, events, civilizations …. ultimately pass from memory even if part of written history, and that 9/11 will not be an exception to this rule dictated by time and the passing of generations.

Rieff considers wording on the bronze panels of the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero which, although not finished, is to be dedicated on this coming September 11, the tenth anniversary of the attack. He points out that the wording is “unexceptional”, that part of it “seems deliberately to echo President George W. Bush’s speech to a joint session of Congress….”, and that such commemorations are always political and “about the reaffirming of group loyalty rather than the establishing of historical accuracy….”

Napoleon Bonaparte was at his most cynical when, as reported, he remarked that history is a set of lies agreed upon. Being realistic, it seems that, as of today, the gross collection of lies that compose the official narrative of 9/11 has been agreed upon by a majority of Americans.

Has the Government’s story gelled beyond redemption? The human capacity for denial does seem limitless, and in recent years I’ve seen spontaneous denial time and again with mere mention of the conclusion of 1,500 architects and engineers. One can actually see in the sudden blank stares minds snapping shut. And while I can accept that weak minds would want to hide from uncomfortable information, I am disheartened that so many in professions requiring good minds and an ability to look squarely at facts are so intellectually lazy.

Is this an American phenomenon? Is it based on fear, or does it come from so many of us having been convinced of “American exceptionalism” and of our inherent goodness from top to bottom? Is it true that while Europeans, with their long tumultuous histories, see conspiracies everywhere while we Americans see them nowhere? In any event, one can surmise that the 9/11 attack will become ever less “searing” in our collective mind with each passing year. Freshmen entering universities on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 were just eight years old when the attack occurred. High school freshmen only four.

The perpetrators of 9/11 and their apologists surely understand this aspect of mass psychology very well. I suggest that they are playing for time, and that this spate of articles and books by the likes of Mole’, Kay, Aaronovitch and others are parts of the larger strategy to manufacture counterweights to such as the books by David Ray Griffin, so influential on the world stage, and the efforts of those at Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

The goal, it would appear, is not only to disparage the Truth Movement but also to fend off and postpone as long as possible an open and public accounting of the many fallacies within the official story so that, in time, 9/11 will be considered by society in much the same light as, say, Pearl Harbor or the Ludlow Massacre are — based ever less on concern coming from personal experience and therefore attracting ever fewer in the ferreting out of answers to “unanswered questions”.

In 2002, The following exchange took place during an interview of Senator Bob Graham by journalist Gwen Ifill:

Graham: “I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of he terrorists were assisted not just in financing — although that was part of it — by a sovereign government, and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down, make the further case, or find the evidence that would indicate that that is not true, and we can look for other reasons why the terrorists were able to function so effectively in the United States.”

Ifill: “Do you think that will ever become public, which countries you’re talking about?”

Graham: “It will become public at some point when it’s turned over to the archives, but that’s 20 or 30 years from now. And we need to have this information now, because it’s relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing today.” www.pbs.org

One might have reminded Ms Ifill, a journalist, that it is the function of her profession to explore such issues and questions.

If the effort to bring truths about 9/11 into a brighter light is to gain past 2011, many more in academe, government and the military who understand aspects of what did and did not take place on 9/11 need to come out of the shadows and take a public stand rather than grousing behind closed doors. We are in an era in which silence will be interpreted as endorsement. It is certain that the dedication of the Memorial at Ground Zero will involve reinforcement of the fabricated official account even as it is an exercise in “bringing us all together”.