A wry scourge on the attack: Gore Vidal delivers chilling predictions of despotism

National Catholic Reporter, August 1, 2003 by Arthur Jones

"The Pentagon Junta in charge of our affairs programmed their president to tell us that bin Laden was an 'evildoer' who envied us our goodness and wealth and freedom.

"None of these explanations made much sense, but our rulers for more than half a century have made sure that we are never to be told the truth about anything that our government has done to other people, not to mention, in McVeigh's case, our own.

"All we are left with are blurred covers of Time and Newsweek where monstrous figures from Hieronymous Bosch stare out of us, hellfire in their eyes, while The New York Times and its chorus of imitators spin complicated stories about mad Osama and cowardly McVeigh, thus convincing most Americans that only a couple of freaks would ever dare strike at a nation as close to perfection as any human society can come."

That U.S. government policies and actions "might have seriously provoked McVeigh and bin Laden was never dealt with. Things just happen out there in the American media and we consumers don't need to be told the why of anything."

Arthur Jones is NCR editor at large. His e-mail address is arthurjones@comcast.net