Hunter S. Thompson, 12 September 2001: "Fear and Loathing in America"

[WilliamPitt]

Fear and Loathing in America

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now -- with somebody -- and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. Osama bin Laden may be a primitive "figurehead" -- or even dead, for all we know -- but whoever put those All-American jet planes loaded with All-American fuel into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon did it with chilling precision and accuracy. The second one was a dead-on bullseye. Straight into the middle of the skyscraper. Nothing -- even George Bush's $350 billion "Star Wars" missile defense system -- could have prevented Tuesday's attack, and it cost next to nothing to pull off. Fewer than 20 unarmed Suicide soldiers from some apparently primitive country somewhere on the other side of the world took out the World Trade Center and half the Pentagon with three quick and costless strikes on one day. The efficiency of it was terrifying.

We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed -- for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won't hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.

The rest: http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1250751

[Autumn]

1. I had a conversation with him in Glenwood Springs one evening.

I will never forget that. I miss him, he was so right.

[99th_Monkey]

2. My dear Hunter

Sad to say, nothing much has changed since you penned this in 2001. Thanks for speaking the naked truth while you had breath to do so.

I would only add to your thoughts this: an even more fundamental driving force underlying our perpetual "religious war" against Islamic terrorists is the nearly invisible hand of the Masters of War that Bobby sang about back in the day, the self-same "military-industrial complex" that Eisenhower warned us about.

But you knew all that, I know. bye for now. ~99th Monkey

[BadGimp]

6. well said, thank you!

[hifiguy]

3. K&R!

[underpants]

4. Kick

[whatchamacallit]

5. Wow... K&R

[Enthusiast]

7. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

Thank you, WilliamPitt!

We are stuck in stupid. As a nation. Stupid serves the greedy well. That's is why they have whole TV networks dedicated to misinformation.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. I remember this when it came out.

[1dogleft]

9. Wow

an America sucks thread on 9/11 what a shocker

[woo me with science]

10. K&R

[colsohlibgal]

11. I So Miss The Man

He was one of a kind, and I've got all his books. The titles of his books are quite descriptive and right, like " A Generation of Swine".

RIP HST

[Tommymac]

12. HST mainlined Truth. eom

[Zo Zig]

13. HST

Faster, faster, faster, untill the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.
RIP

[Jim Lane]

14. I'll admit that, if I'd read this at the time, I would've thought he was overreacting.

Posthumous props, Hunter. You were right, I was wrong.

[liberal_at_heart]

15. K&R

[ismnotwasm]

16. K&R

[Scuba]

17. He was, of course, right as rain.

[Initech]

18. And the truth shall set us free!

Hunter Thompson saw that 9/11 was a coup by the military industrial complex and the BFEE to create an endless perpetual war machine designed to funnel all the wealth to the 1% who don't need it, and aren't taxed on it, why can't we?

Remember - while New York burned, Bush read "My Pet Goat" to school children, and didn't quit after being told what was going on. Sign of a guilty man if there ever was one.