Saw a video posted by some account trying to get youth invested in politics on campus that was just man-on-the-street interviews asking a diverse group of college students who actually attacked America on 9/11. Of course the video showed them getting the question hilariously wrong.
You see these every now and then with captions like “Americans can’t name their own senators” or “young people suck at US geography” where they exist to provide a superiority boost for oldest people to comment “and this is the generation telling us we’re ignorant???”
Except with the 9/11 question I can’t blame a single one of these kids for getting it wrong and answering “Isis” or “Iraq.” They have the excuse of being born years after it happened, but regardless of their age the American government has spent the past two decades on a propaganda campaign obfuscating the exact question the video asked them in order to justify countless forever wars.
The kid confidently answering “Iraq attacked us” isn’t showing how uneducated the average American student is, he’s exhibiting the results of a long running misinformation campaign stemming from George Bush’s decision to use an attack orchestrated by Saudis operating out of Afghanistan as an opportunity to invade Iraq with the purpose of using it to get to Iran, thus making daddy proud.
ISIS didn’t attack the towers but Obama’s expansion of the GWOT into countries barely affiliated with countries affiliated with the attackers means that somehow extrajudicial killings in Mali have something to do with the attack on New York City. If I was normal about following geopolitics from a young age I would be confused too!
For the past 2 years, I’ve tweeted out the names of the fallen from the American war in Afghanistan. The 1st time was around the fall of Kabul. The 2nd around Memorial Day. I will start again on Friday at 5 pm ET. Many attach personals stories and photos.
You’ll note that none of the options are such emotions as “rage-filled sorrow” or “the urge to prosecute war criminals.” Given this, you may not be surprised to learn that the honorary chair of the foundation is George W. Bush, who happens to be the president who birthed the global war on terror with the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The foundation’s funders include 7-Eleven, Amazon, and Baker Botts, a powerhouse Texas law firm named after James Baker, secretary of state for the first George Bush.
Jon Schwarz in The Intercept. George W. Bush Is Building a Memorial to the War on Terror. He Wants Your Feedback.
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