Yet another reason to celebrate the impending departure of W. from the White House: Even his warnings about war — aimed at terrifying Americans into letting him do anything he wants — are unoriginal.
Paraphrasing W.: We must fight terrorists over there so that we don't have to fight them over here.
Writer Michael B. Oren, in his 2007 book, "Power, Faith and Fantasy, America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present," discusses the Barbary pirates, their attacks on American ships in the Mediterranean and the "tribute" (money, guns, ships and more) paid to the bosses of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and other powers.
He quotes businessman Fisher Ames of Massachusetts: "Our commerce is on the point of being annihilated, and, unless an armament is fitted out, we may very soon expect the Algerines on the coast of America."
Oren goes on to report that President Thomas Jefferson was working on a way to start a war with Barbary without Constitution-mandated approval by Congress when Tripoli solved his problem — the U.S. Consulate was attacked and its flagpole cut down ... Tripoli's traditional declaration of war.
The World Trade Center towers had flagpoles and flags ... maybe W. can twist that into a declaration of war by Osama.
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