Waged on fictitious ground against a shadowy enemy, the great military campaign of the twentieth century was not a war on terror at all, it was a war of terror. The Corbett Report: False Flags: The Secret History of Al Qaeda III, James Corbett online
The war was sold to the American people based on falsehoods and lies.’ War of Lies: How to Sell an Invasion, Joe Wilson, Youtube 51.15, 2022
In the ruins of New York, America vows to defeat terrorism. But this promise is quickly betrayed. George Bush changes enemies. Osama bin Laden is replaced by Saddam Hussein. ibid.
For months this deadly [Iraq] arsenal will by at the heart of the manipulation. ibid.
Saddam Hussein’s arsenal had been destroyed after the Gulf War. ibid.
The collusion between Iraqi exiles and Neo-Conservatives becomes cooperation. ibid.
The machinery of lies runs at full throttle for months. ibid.
Contrary to the lies that were told to the American people, Iraq had absolutely no connections to 9/11. Al Qaeda was despised by the regime in Iraq which was a secular regime not interested in religion as such. But they still wanted to go for it. And so they delayed it. They went into Afghanistan first. Now why did they decide to go for Iraq, that’s the interesting question. Tariq Ali, author The Clash of Fundamentalisms
The major reason to take Iraq was a display of imperial power. Tariq Ali
I think this is the first time we have publicly debated against each other which is for me a sad occasion. Christopher Hitchens v Tariq Ali, debate Georgetown University 2002, Ali
Did what happened on September 11th constitute an Act of War or was it an Act of Terror? … The response in my opinion should have been a measured response. ibid.
Osama bin Laden dead or alive – that was the cowboy rhetoric which emanated from the White House. ibid.
There have been other acts of terrorism even on the United States itself, like when the Twin Towers were first hit in the ’90s. ibid.
If you accept that their main objective was not the overthrow of the Taliban … but the capture of Al Qaeda then it has to be said that the war’s failed. ibid.
With a war you can at least pretend there are immediate results. ibid.
The War on Terror you will notice does not apply and cannot apply to state terror as long as the states in question are friendly with the United States. ibid.
A leadership which believes it has the right to do what it wants without consulting anyone. ibid.
This has now become a war to remap the world in the interests of the United States’ empire. ibid.
The concrete effects of this war are to promote terror. ibid.
The essential common element in the past remarks and the present remarks that he’s made is the concept of moral equivalence. ibid. Hitchens
This synthetic pseudo-pretended anti-imperialism. ibid.
There is, there has been for some time now, a civil war within Islamic society, within the Islamic world. ibid.
It’s because of the spirit of theocratic and tribal absolutism which is abroad among us again and has rich and powerful backers. ibid.
Imperial and fascistic forces … Upholding certain values against such forces. ibid.
I never thought I would live to see the Left sink that fucking low. ibid.
It [US] does contain the seeds of this actualisation and so do we. ibid.
Just to clear away some of the intellectual clutter. ibid.
It’s not to justify it [foreign support for terrorism], it’s to understand it and explain it so it bloody stops. ibid. Ali
Christopher has this simplistic view that in every way you have to take sides. I don’t believe that. ibid.
The first jihad of the 20th century was organised by Brzezinski. ibid.
If you don’t encourage an organic overthrow of these dictatorships … you actually create a bigger mess than you intend to sort out, which is exactly what will happen in Afghanistan. ibid.
When did we ever call on foreign powers to intervene to stop this. We didn’t do it because we used to in those days rely on the strength of the people to do it. ibid.
And as for this fascist argument, do give it a break, Christopher. ibid.
In my lifetime in Washington, which is now a quarter of a century, the most amazing thing I have ever seen is to see the oil-bearing wing of the Republican party – particularly identified with Mr Bush and Mr Cheney – change its mind completely, having run against Al Gore, against nation-building, against humanitarian intervention, against this kind of co-operation, change its mind completely and go to war with the status quo. Christopher Hitchens, lecture Islam and the West
The secret decisions that are made at the highest levels of government. And what the government was willing to do under the blanket of national security. What they are willing to do in going way outside the law. Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror III: The Dark Side, man in the know, Netflix 2021
It was not clear directionally what we wanted to do and when we wanted to do it. Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror IV: The Good War, former Afghanistan ambassador
More than 4,400 US service members and approximately 200,000 Iraqi citizens have died in the Iraq War. ibid. caption
We don’t know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. ibid. soldier in Afghanistan
We’re winning: you speak to Afghans and that’s not the case at all. ibid.
There’s a part of me that died in Afghanistan that I will never get back. ibid.
They were having to carry it out inside of Pakistan, a sovereign nation where the US was not supposed to be, added an immense level of complexity to this. Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror V: Graveyard of Empires