9/11 at 25: What America chooses to remember

The 25th anniversary of the 11 September attacks will soon be upon us. Americans will mourn, taking time off to complain about high petrol prices inflicted on them by another war. Examining US media, it becomes clear that the primary driver of restraint on its military power abroad is not the morality of its voting population. Certainly, it is not the ethics of those who govern it. The most important consideration — and perhaps the only consideration — when American aircraft carriers sail to distant lands to bomb and kill others is that Americans not be affected negatively. The capture of Venezuela's oil, where invasion is accompanied by plunder, is the ideal; the nuisance of inflation emanating from actions against Iranians is not. This month, the US announced that an American company would be given a 100-year concession over 17 oilfields in Venezuela, amounting to 65 billion barrels of crude. Trump, who to his credit is the most honest of American presidents, said the US would 'run' the country. The BBC headline read: 'Remarkable US oil deal puzzles analysts — and angers many Venezuelans'. Few Americans were angered, of course. A neat middle ground of imperialism is Iraq. Saddam Hussein (Saddam's unusual name shares a root with the word for the trauma Indians are familiar with: sadma) was hanged 20 years ago. His nation was attacked after Americans were sold a lie: that there was a nuclear programme being developed to threaten them. They have absolutely no problem with the exact same lie being used again to murder Iranians; their chief concern is that Iran not interfere with their lives.