They Hate Our Freedom

Near the end of 2022,[1] the government finally released the notes from the 9/11 Commission’s interview of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney from April 29, 2004. Would you believe it turns out the president admitted that his father and predecessor’s decades–long, post–first Gulf War sanctions regime — enforced against Iraq by U.S. warplanes based in Saudi Arabia and responsible for starving and depriving civilians to death by the hundreds of thousands[2] — were the major motive for al Qaeda’s war against the United States, including the September 11 attacks: “With Iraq, the U.S. had a sanctions regime in place that was recruiting terrorists. Their propaganda with reports of starving Iraqi children were hurting us.”^[3] But that is not what they told the American people. Bush said the enemy was out to get us because “they hate our freedoms.”[4] They were lying. They knew they were lying. They always lie.[5]

[1] Alas, too late for Enough Already.

[2] Richard Garfield, RN, DrPH, “Morbidity and Mortality Among Iraqi Children from 1990 Through 1998: Assessing the Impact of the Gulf War and Economic Sanctions,” Campaign Against Sanctions in Iraq, July 1999, https://casi.org.uk/info/garfield/dr-garfield.html.

[3] Memorandum For the Record, “Commission Meeting with the President and Vice President of the United States,” 9/11 Commission, April 29, 2004, https://archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2012-163-doc-1-release-material.pdf.

[4] President George W. Bush, “Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People,” White House, September 20, 2001, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html; George W. Bush, “President’s Remarks at Victory 2002 Event,” White House, March 29, 2002, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/03/text/20020328.html; “The Vice President appears on Meet the Press with Tim Russert,” White House, September 16, 2001, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/vicepresident/news-speeches/speeches/vp20010916.html.

[5] On the question of Saudi involvement in the attack, see, Larisa Alexandrovna Horton, (the Mrs.) “The ‘28 Pages’ Explained,” Antiwar.com, July 21, 2016, https://original.antiwar.com/larisa-alexandrovna/2016/07/20/28-pages-explained.