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US: I support Nancy Pelosi’s call for a 9/11-style investigation into the Capitol’s melee on 6 January. I do not do this because I think there is a valid analogy between the terrorist attack on the United States by Muslim fanatics on September 11, 2001, and the Capitol’s low-level riot.
On 9/11, about 3,000 innocent people were killed, billions of dollars worth of property was wiped out, and important symbols of the US economic and military power were attacked, destroyed in the World Trade Towers, severely damaged in the case of the Pentagon. On January 6, a pro-Trump rally got out of hand despite the president’s order to go to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically.”
Despite the divisive differences between the events, the Democrats immediately seized on the riot, elevated it to an ‘armed uprising’, and lamented the onslaught on ‘our democracy.’
Indeed, this narrative’s construction was so rapid that the cynics among us speculated that the riot, if not precisely planned by the anti-Trump forces, was at least foreseen as a viable possibility. Something similar can be said about the unfolding of the phrase ‘our democracy.’ In this case, the first-person plural possessively is very clearly intended to be exclusive, not inclusive. No one wearing a MAGA hat or waving a Trump banner is included in that ‘us.’ The thousands of loyal National Guard troops and the long, razor-sharp fence quickly erected to surround the Capitol conveyed the same message. It’s Us vs. Them, comrade: talk about ‘unity’ and ‘our democracy,’ but practice division and exclusion. Nancy Pelosi called the Capitol ‘the house of the people,’ the ‘citadel of democracy,’ but the armed forces and the fence showed a different reality.
I do not mean to keep the January 6 outrage to a minimum. It’s never a good thing if a crowd tilts on a mob, which happened on that day. They did far, much less damage than the numbers of masses did this summer through America’s cities – including Washington DC. Note that the media have given the BLM / antifa anti-Trump rioters a free pass and that almost all democratic politicians disapprove of the pro-Trump crowd’s behavior on 6 January. Who thinks low can even be described as a double standard.
This is the main reason why I support Speaker Pelosi’s call for an inquiry, if not precisely a 9/11 style inquiry into the events of January 6th. Like her, I think it’s important to know the truth about how it happened. However, I’m not sure she would like a free and unbiased examination. If she was serious, she would support the case Judicial Watch filed against the Capitol police for public e-mail, videos, and other material happening throughout the day. For example, why did the police in Capitol at some entrances open the doors to protesters and welcome them inside?
It is absolutely critical to the Democratic story that the January 6 incident be made as violent and insane as possible. Only in this way can pro-Trump Americans be excluded from ‘our democracy’ and transformed into ‘domestic extremists,’ if not, indeed into ‘domestic terrorists.’
Five people died that day on or near the Capitol. The protesters killed no one. Ashli ​​Babbitt, a pro-Trump activist, was shot in the neck at close range, apparently by a law enforcement officer, and succumbed to the wound. It was the only shot fired on the Capitol that day. Liberal commentator Glenn Greenwald further downplays the ‘armed insurgency’ meme in an important column entitled ‘The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot.’ Greenwald says the protesters did not kill Kevin Greeson, but:
‘… died of a heart attack outside the Capitol; Benjamin Philips (50), “the founder of a pro-Trump website called Trumparoo” … died that day of a stroke; and Rosanne Boyland, a fanatical Trump supporter who, according to the Times, was accidentally “killed in a crowd of fellow rioters during their attempt to fight through a police line.”
So, four of the five who died were pro-Trump protesters. And the fifth? Well, it was Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Hill police officer (also a Trump supporter), who the New York Times and every anti-Trump expert in Alpha Centauri told us was killed by the crowd with a fire extinguisher.