I know it seems like another lifetime ago, especially in the age where last evening’s news becomes today’s archaic information. But joggle your mind a tad bit and let’s take a stroll down memory lane. The year is 2001 and our country was just attacked in ways that shocked our nation to her very foundation. The twin towers were reduced to a smoldering ash and the Pentagon had a hole in it the size of a football field—September 11th would forever change our lives and induced our nation into the age of fear and anxiety.

Our innocence as a country was torn away among the shards of broken glasses, reduced steel and shattered lives. We would never be the same after that day; two oceans were no longer insurmountable walls that protected us from foreign intervention. It was during this time of shock that we were hoodwinked in short order to start an immoral and unjust war in Iraq. Let me say from the outset, my stance against the Iraq war is by no means meant as a knock against the valor and courage of those who put on the uniform and served their nation. In fact, our outrage should be elevated to code orange when we realize that countless number of veterans who returned home from Iraq broken are now residing on sidewalks shrouded by indigence. This article I wrote about homeless veterans and broken soldiers we too often ignore is one that gnaws at my heart daily (LINK).

It took hindsight for me to realize just how nefarious some of our political leaders were. The Iraq war was a decade in the making as the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) had its design on the oil in Iraq and projecting force in the Middle East at least six years before the first plane hit the first tower. All they needed was a national tragedy and a crisis within the public to coax a war leery nation into a crusade to remake the Middle East in their own image. From Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Iraq, the plan was to topple each nation one by one and then install a puppet government that would be beholden to the agenda of globalists and corporate imperialists. As you read this article, I hope more and more people stop conflating patriotism with saluting authority. Even within the context of the military, soldiers are duty bound to question immoral leadership. The truest form of patriotism is standing up to enemies of the United States both foreign and domestic.

This was my first education of the fecklessness of the Democratic party. Although I have to admit, back then I saw George Bush as the tyrant and the Democrats as benevolent wimps. I realize in hindsight that both Democrats and Republicans were in on the war from the outset. Did you know that Ash Carter, Obama’s Secretary of Defense, was part of the Project for New American Century? But we will get back to this topic in a bit for there are layers of lies that we are fed that has us thinking the Democrats and Republicans are political opponents when in reality they are flip side of the same bankrupt ideology of factionalism and corporatism.

During the run up to the Iraq war, few had the political courage to stand up to Bush. In fact, most Democrats were acting as cheer leaders for W and were banging the drums of war. From Hillary Clinton to Joe Biden and all in between, major Democratic figures were being paraded on news outlets trumpeting the urgency to initiate an unholy war against the people of Iraq. Democrats and Republicans alike were thus lying through their teeth, fabricating out of thin cloth a causa belli in order to dance to the tune of bombs over Baghdad. If there was any justice in this world, the Bush administration and Democratic leaders alike would be tried before the Hague for the genocide committed against the people of Iraq and for the lives of over 5,000 Americans lost in a war declared for the sake of profiteering. Alas, those that have superiority of the gun gets to preach morality and rule of law while practicing none of it.

Yet in the cacophony of Democratic cravenness leading up to the Iraq war, one voice stood up against the Bush administration and did all she could to speak truth to power. Her name is Cynthia McKinney, the then congresswoman from Georgia’s fourth congressional district. As our government was in the throes of quickly white washing the lead up to September 11th and using the 9/11 Commission to nullify both the truth and responsibility of failed leadership that culminated in the lives of over 3,000 American lives lost, Cynthia mustered up the courage to speak out and refused to stay silent like her Democratic counterparts. Cynthia leveled this charge at the feet of the Bush administration:

It is known that President Bush’s father, through The Carlyle Group, had–at the time of the attacks–joint business interests with the bin Laden construction company and many defense industry holdings, the stocks of which have soared since September 11. In the month that followed the attacks, when New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani refused to cash a $10 million check written by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in light of the Prince’s suggestion that the attacks were an indication that the United States “should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause.

Not only did her fellow Democrats not rally to her side to hold the Bush administration accountable, the Democratic leadership did the opposite and reprimanded Cynthia. I would call it cowardice of the highest kind, what the Democrats did, but that is being too kind for the Democrats in DC wanted war just as much Bush when I look back in hindsight. Most of the “liberal” establishment was supporting the Iraq war even as they pretend otherwise after the Iraq war proved to be a debacle. The same for the mainstream media like the New York Times and Washington Post who could not wait to count the clicks on their website once the bombs started dropping in cities like Mosul and Tikrit.

Cynthia though refused to relent; she defiantly leveled accusation after another which deserved a fair hearing in Congress. Instead, the duplicitous Congress acted on a bipartisan basis to sweep the truth of 9/11 under a rug and then in short order gave a blank check to George W. Bush to unleash hell throughout the Middle East. You see, Cynthia spoke truth to power before Obama was anywhere in the picture; she was not only against the illegal war in Iraq, she actually demanded accountability for what happened on that awful September morning.

What Cynthia got for her courage was primary challenge with the tacit approval of the Democratic National Committee. In an age where established congressmen and women never get primaried, Cynthia was all the sudden faced with a well-funded candidate named Denise Majette. A well orchestrated campaign that encouraged Republicans to vote in the Democratic open primary ensured Cynthia’s defeat. Thus the reward for valor and speaking truth to power was a one way ticket out of DC and to be maligned as a traitor for daring to have the audacity to stand up to a rush to war. Demagogues get accolades, truth tellers get the shaft—this is why our country is in shambles.

Let Cynthia’s story serve as a moral of sorts, those who actually try to stand up to the system of corruption and graft in DC have no chance in hell to remain in office. While we are led to believe that the struggle within our government is between “left” and “right” and between Republicans and Democrats, in reality both wings in DC work in concert to perpetuate immoral wars, unjust foreign policies, and unfair economic policies. Those who try to speak against these depravities that take place in DC on a regular basis are either quickly defeated—as opponents are given millions of dollars to overwhelm any elected official who dares stray too far from the plutocratic orthodoxy—or some scandal is unearthed about them as the media is set against them like rabid dogs. In the worst case, those who speak truth to power meet an early demise.

This is how our system of governance keeps our bankrupt politicians in check and beholden to the checkbook of billionaires. It’s a stick and carrot approach; play nice and pretend to be outraged by immoral policies and splinter society by way of politics and the system rewards these craven politicians with fortunes and access to power. Refuse to adhere to the corporate line though and the stick comes out as a sudden news leak inundates the offending politician in a tsunami of bad news. Every politician in DC has bones in the closet; the sin of Marion Barry was not the exception in DC, it’s the rule as congressmen, senators and our presidents act in ways that would have made the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah blush and seem downright prudish. The vices of politicians and pundits only become news when they refuse to play along with their political benefactors or if they dare threaten the money of their billionaire masters. The House of Cards is quaint and child’s play compared to the muck that goes on in DC.

It is better though to speak the truth and deal with the repercussions for those who actually value their souls more than they value titles and access to power. Cynthia retained her dignity even as she was quickly kicked out of Congress for daring to stand up to the war criminal Bush and those who sent our young men and women overseas to die and unleash fires on the citizens of Iraq. After we finally realized the ways we were all misled into war, Obama would gain the presidency by pretending to have the courage that Cynthia displayed in real time. In reality, Obama was just another deception as we were sold a bill of goods of hope to make it seem like the system changed when in reality Obama would initiate more illegal wars than even Bush could have imagined. The Project for a New American Century was started by Bush and implemented fully by Obama as we started wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen as designed by PNAC in 1996. Even as Michelle Obama and George Bush now are BFFs and Hollywood is remaking the image of Bush, Cynthia remains true to her character and continues to hold neo-cons and neo-liberals alike accountable.

While I do not necessarily agree with everything that Cynthia McKinney says nor do I concur with all her views, I nevertheless admire her willingness to speak her truth instead of using talking points and teleprompters to hide her beliefs. Our problem as a nation is simple, we keep voting for demons who pretend to be angels and turning away from angels who fight demons and struggle just like us. We follow authority because it has supremacy instead of following those with better ideas. Unless information comes directly from our government or from our feckless mainstream media, we tend to dismiss those who speak truth to power as conspiracy theorists. What is most sad is that we conflate fame and fortune for wisdom and virtue when in reality fame and fortune is acquired by those who have only cunning and lack any virtue. It is no accident we just exited an empty suit Obama who peddled false hopes and now have an even emptier carnival barker who is feeding hatred and childishness into the soul of our nation.

We keep letting these two bankrupt political parties lead us by the nose by way of disinformation, endless outrage and grievance peddling. All is done in order to keep us perpetually distracted and in the blind about what our government is doing in our names. There is a simple lesson to learn from revisiting the story of Cynthia McKinney. Those who remain in power are part and parcel of the very injustices they speak against. From Bernie to Elizabeth to Cruz and Gowdy and all those who pretend to be speaking truth to power, they are doing no such thing. The rule is easy, the minute our elected officials actually do stand up to the graft and corruption in DC, they are given the McKinney treatment. It is up to us, the people, to stop idolizing the political snakes in DC and actually stand for those who truly stand up to the overreach in DC without respect to political ideology.

Aren’t you tired of letting the powerful divide us and in the process running roughshod over all of our lives? Aren’t you tired of those who are supposed to administer laws yet get away with abject lawlessness. We have let our country get hijacked by tyrants in suits and hustlers in DC and Wall Street as they thrive by feeding on our hopes and our livelihood. Enough! How many more diversions will we fall for and how much red meat will we ingest from pundits, politicians, and plutocrats before we rise up and reclaim our nation. The struggle is not between left and right nor is it between political ideologies, the struggle has always been and continues to be between the powerful and the rest of us.

So let us, for God’s sake, unite as a people or else we will find equality finally while we stand in soup kitchens. How about all speak truth to power like Cynthia McKinney. Instead of using social media to bash each other or to feed into the banality of our childish mainstream media, do something audacious and use #McKinneyTreatment and use this article as a basis to join hands with your fellow strugglers. Instead of letting inane subjects trend, make our collective power and our connective voices trend. Turn #McKinneyTreatment on its head, where McKinney got the raw treatment in the past, let this #McKinneyTreatment be a response back to those who are never held accountable for the sins of 9/11, for destroying our economy in 2008 and for their continued malfeasance. For once, let us reverse colonize the globalists and make them understand that their tactics of divide and conquer and taking from the people has its limits. #McKinneyTreatment

“Every dollar that is printed should not represent a debt to private bankers. It should represent an investment potential in the common good, in the common needs of our country.” ~ Cynthia McKinney

Watch the video below and understand how both Democrats and Republicans are playing us for chumps and fools.

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Tags: 9/11, Ash Carter, Barack Obama, Bombs over Baghdad, Cynthia McKinney, George W. Bush, Ghion Cast, Ghion Journal, ICC, Iraq War, Middle East, Osama bin Laden, PNAC, Project for a New American Century, September 11th, Syria War, Teddy Fikre, Teodrose Fikre, The Hague, Yemen