A glimmer of light?

'My time as editor has been overlapped by a crisis - a prolonged, labyrinthine, tragic, seemingly non-ending crisis - that involves the prehistory of 9/11, 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, fraught histories between the United States and almost everyone.'
David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker

I figure it's worth leading with a quote from a guy who edits a a magazine that sells over a million copies a week. Someone has their finger on the pulse.

With that anniversary almost on us there are growing signs that events as so often related are starting to unravel, at least as a political PR exercise.

Remnick lays out a handy trail to follow. For example I was interested to read, in passing, that the planning for an Iraqi invasion was well advanced prior to 9/11, but it was facing significant opposition in Congress, including among Bush's own Republicans.

There are many who simply could not see the urgency in the plan of attack. History shows that 9/11 changed, or at least silenced, that opposition.

Of the event itself, the rumblings of a conspiracy are threatening to become a full blown quake as doubts are more freely aired now. Even Madame Coulter is finding that the ability to lambaste critics, more especially widows of the Twin Towers, has become a game fraught with danger. The attack dogs are losing their bite.

Those rapid successes in the War on Terror, the glory of wiping out the Taliban and Saddam's regime are now bogged down in seemingly unwinnable conflicts.

As time distances us from the tragic event of 9/11 we our country's engaged in conflicts which have little or nothing to do with global terror and 'homeland' security. Well not initially at least, but those conflicts have spawned a new generation ready to play on the obvious fears of the west, to join in the terror game.

Those promoting terrorism must be thrilled to stand back and watch western leaders systematically destroying all those things we hold dear in our supposed free and democratic countries.

The spectre of internal spying on citizens, the bizarre regulations which make any travel into an ordeal rather than a pleasure, the growth of racial and religious based hate and fear. The list goes on and 'we the people' remain powerless, in the face of the great con, to insist on our rights.

The terrorists really need to do very little to keep the fear alive, they have willing governments to do that job for them.

A good conman, as we are all taught, mixes lies with the truth in a way which makes it seem churlish to question, even if you do spot the lie.

We have been conned by unprincipled leaders, and no amount of intimidation and threat to silence us will change that fact.

Even those Congressional Republicans seem to be regrowing their backbones and finally saying no to the con. Like them or not, there must be a measure of respect for the actions which very well cost majority in November and the presidency in 08.I don't really know if the pendulum has started to swing back yet, but it has certainly slowed down a lot. There is some glimmer of light showing.