The Ticked-Off Timer-Counter
by pessimist
I ran across the article (which I rearranged below) in The Independent, a British newspaper. In Britain, it seems its media is doing the tabulation of Bu$hCo activity that should rightfully be done by the citizens of the country which brought about 9/11 - through an incompetent and haughty foreign policy conducted by both US political parties since 1945. It assumed that the US would always maintain control (by dint of having the only nuclear arsenal that was ever used in anger).
Except for minor formatting changes, all I did with the article was put the listings in reverse-numerical order and added [My comments]:
11 September 2006
$40 billion: Airline industry losses since September 2001
$8 billion: The amount the US will spend this year on hunting Bin Laden and other terrorists
[Assuming an equal expenditure for each year of King George's Oil Terror War, we would have gotten better value for our investment of the equal amount of funds spent in covering the lost airline revenue.]
[But I digress.]
$119 million: Ticket sales for anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11
[An amount I'm sure Michael Moore would gladly spend to reverse this next item:]
72,000: Estimated number of civilians killed worldwide since September 11, 2001 as a result of the war on terror
[This next is a sensitive item in Britain, despite its total being a drop in the bucket compared to US numbers:]
4,000: Number of UK troops left in Iraq after British-controlled provinces [were] handed back to Baghdad
[These next two point out that soon, more Americans will have died avenging 9/11 than actually died DURING the attacks:]
2,973: Total number of people killed (excluding the 19 hijackers) in the September 11, 2001 attacks2,932: Total number of US servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since September 2001
[These next two items reflect the capitalization of the tragedy by the private commercial sector:]
2009: Date when the official memorial will open at the World Trade Centre site1,248: Number of published books relating to the September 11 attacks
[This next item reflects the work of a major international kidnapping ring, as most of these 'detainees' would be found innocent in an honest court of law (see Item 91%) instead of the politically-charged military kangaroo 'Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards' tribunals they face:]
[This next item is another boil on the British butt:]
117: Number of UK service personnel killed in Iraq since invasion
[Dying for even fewer good reasons than the 2,932 (and counting) Americans have]
[This next item demonstrates that the agencies whose job is to prosecute lawbreakers saw no reason to bring indictments against Bu$hCo's list of 'terrah' suspects:]
91%: Terror cases from FBI and others that US Justice Dept declined to prosecute in first eight months of 2006
[This next item reflects a growing awareness of who the terrorists really are - at least in Britain:]
77%: Percentage of people in the UK who believe Tony Blair's Middle East policy has made Britain a terrorist target (YouGov poll)
[This next is an addendum to Item 117:]
40: Number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan since invasion
[Dying for even fewer good reasons than the 2,932 (and counting) Americans have]
[This next item demonstrates that billions are being wasted in conducting 'Homeland Security', accomplishing NOTHING except enriching politically-connected corporate fascists:]
18: The number of times that undercover investigators with fake IDs have breezed through US border checkpoints in a test by the Government Accountability Office
[As X Files used to rant, 'The Truth Gets Out There' - or something like that:]
11: Weeks the 9/11 commission's final report was top of New York Times' non-fiction best-seller list
[But then, every nation has its sleepy sheep:]
7%: People in UK who think US-led war on terror is being won, according to YouGov
[At least it is a number much smaller than that of the US (approximately 31%)!]
[An illustration that Bu$hCo International is led by incompetents:]
2: Number of years since US intelligence had any credible lead to Osama bin Laden's whereabouts
[At least Clinton knew where 'is' was!]
[The only success in King George's Oil Terror War - the conviction of a Muslim man with a religious-based death wish, expressed through his generousity in conducting the prosecution of his case for the government:]
[These last items shows both how poorly prepared Bu$hco was to defend the nation - even after the Clinton Transition Team briefed them on known and suspected Al Qaeda threats ...:]
0: Hours of intelligence training provided to new FBI agents before 9/11.
[... and the improvements in defensive preparation Bu$hCo has made since 9/11:]
Feeling safer yet? Vote Republican in the fall election if you do.
You know who else to vote for if you don't [even if they aren't earning it!].
Have a comment? writepessimist@earthlink.net
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