If scientists proclaim the tongue to be the strongest muscle of the human body, then Henry Rollins should qualify as Mr. Universe.  Never one to hide his opinion—particularly a political one—Rollins is a reporter’s dream.  Just place a microphone in front of Rollins’ prodigious tongue, say the words “George Bush,” and stand back.  The former front man for Black Flag, carries the high octane energy performances from his early 80’s hardcore days into a spoken word show that is as insightful as entertaining.  The current lame duck President has been a fruitful well of material for Rollins’ act and as such, he pays his final gratitude toward the Cowboy Diplomat in his upcoming “Recount Tour”.

On the seventh anniversary of 9/11, I had the opportunity to discuss with Rollins the political impact behind the tragedy, the foreign diplomacy (or lack thereof) of the Bush administration, and the perpetuation of the military industrial complex.  Considering the man’s self-education (he’s been everywhere around the globe) and his intelligence, the interview is being split into two parts, with Rollins’ take on the current election to be posted tomorrow.

REAX:  First, what is the meaning behind the name “Recount Tour”?
Henry Rollins:  The results to this upcoming election will be debated, contested.  People will demand a recount, if McCain wins, which I am sure he will, Democrats are going to go, “wait a minute!  You all cheated!”  If Barack Obama wins [Republicans] will go “well, you all cheated!  Let’s do a recount.”  So, it’s a countdown to people going “I want a recount!”  That’s why I call the tour that.

Also, I’ve done eight years of Bush.  He’s my pal and I’d be remissed to sit it out his last few weeks in office without being on the road.  He’s in the White House, I gotta be on the road.  My America will be different.  I’ve done 8 years very conscious of him in the White House, and I just don’t want to let it go without uttering a few 100,000 words in the next month and a half.

REAX:  Today is the 7th anniversary of 9/11.  President Bush has been an expert at using 9/11 as a scare tactic to move the electorate his way.  The Republicans even used 9/11 imagery in a “patriotic” video during their convention.  Do you ever think there will be a day when the tragedy is not politicized or being accused of being politicized?
HR:  They like fear.  And one of the people who say “9/11” very sexy is Rudy [Guiliani].  So, they brought him to say “9/11”.  I think that people will always find it as fair game to use it if they need it.  I think the Right will always be using it.  “You Democrats are soft and you can blame 9/11 on Bill Clinton.”  Well, ok.  There is a debate to be had there for sure.  But, I don’t necessarily agree with that.  American foreign policy, from at least Reagan until now, helped ferment the Taliban and Al Quiada.  I think we took our eye off the ball.  If you read Robert Baer’s books, who I think is an interesting guy; our CIA guy in the Middle East for a couple of decades.  He said “we told Reagan about 9/11.  We told Bush I.  We told Clinton.  No one listened to us.”  The CIA was probably the last people surprised this happened.  I am not saying we deserved it.  I’m saying that some people saw it as an eventuality. 

So yes, I think it will always be politicized.  It is a political event.  It was a tragedy on a human scale, but it happened for political reasons.

REAX:  Did it happen for political reasons as a response to our participation in Middle Eastern politics?
HR:  It was a reaction to American foreign policy.  It tries the end of logic that someone gets up in the morning and says “Fuck America.  I’m taking it out.”  Actions lead up to a reaction.  Nothing comes out of a vacuum.  There is a cause and effect.  And, I’m not saying “ooooh, America is bad.”  Our presence in Saudi Arabia seemed to exacerbate Mr. Bin Ladin and he reacted.  America’s foreign policy. . . we shove countries around.  Some people don’t feel good about it.  The GDP of the Arab world is the same GDP of Spain.  A lot of poor people out there and its easy to get poor people to react.  Like, you can get the dumb white trash guy to react by saying, “Hey, you hate black people for taking your job, right?”  “I do?”  “Yeah!”  All of a sudden you have a new skin head.  That’s how Hitler marshalled his people.  You’re angry, right?  You’re poor?  Yeah!  Well, its those Jew bastards, and the fags, and the intellectuals, and the teachers.  So, its easy to take a dead end guy, from the streets of Cairo, and flip him into some islamic terrorist.  So, it goes both ways, with each side manipulating their populace with hatred against the other guy.

Some people ask why we have a problem with Iran.  Well, you ever look at 1953, "Operation Ajax?"  When the CIA helped depose Prime Minister Mosaddeq?  No, I didn’t know that.  Well, why don’t you read up on it and see why the Iranians might be a little gun shy with America.  Are they evil?  No.  We were doing “business” over there.  The Company, or as they call it, the CIA, was doing “business” over there.  I’ve been to Iran.  No one was mean to me.  I talked quite a bit to Iranians about [President] Ahmadinejad and everything else.  They seem quite sane to me.  They are terrified of Bush, but not eager for any kind of confrontation or conflict.  They want to raise their kids and drink clean water. 

I just think 9/11 should’ve been a real wake call to Americans to realize they live in the world.  They are not the world, they are part of it.  And, maybe it was an opportunity to pull their head out and look around.  Because, all of this stuff, all of these wars, in my opinion, are all avoidable.  And its not America becoming a nation of pussies and “Defeatocrats” and all of that.  I think a lot of this stuff is avoidable if you sit down and negotiate.  One country takes 25% of the world’s oil?  Why?  Do we have to?  We’re America.  Can’t we come up with something better?  Can’t we reinvent the world with something cooler?  Can’t we save the world?  Aren’t we the best?  I think we are. 

REAX:  Do you think the Bush’s negative legacy can be turned into a positive, signalling a new direction towards international diplomacy?
HR:  Or, let’s not see negotiation as weakness, unless you are into war without end.  And who would be into that?  Well, if you sell bullets and bombs then peace is your only enemy.  If you are Blackwater, peace isn’t doing you any favors.  If you are Halliburton or Bechtel, or KBR, or Triple Canopy, or Instinctive Shooting discontent and misery is your stock and trade.  When things calm down somewhere, you start it up.  As soon as Bush said that 2011 is a timeline for Iraq, we started heating things up in Georgia.  Reheating the Cold War.  That is going to be a great cash cow.  I am sure all of these companies are gearing up for the money they are going to make.  They are buying whores and houseboats just knowing that when we get into it with Russia we are going to be buying more [weapons].  And, we won’t have enlisted men fighting these wars.  It will be private security.  It will be Blackwater.  So Erik   Prince [Blackwater CEO] is getting all geared up.  He will be able to buy. . . Nebraska.

And, so it goes.  But, this is an un-spinnable fact: America makes a lot of money selling weapons.  We are the number one weapons sellers to other countries in the entire world.  Its not Russia.  Its America.  Its not China.  Its America.  Any country that becomes a NATO country, we sell them billions of dollars in weapons and we tell them that’s how you become “NATO grade.”  We just sold JDAMs [munitions] to Saudi Arabia, JDAMs to Egypt.  We’ve never sold those, ever!  This was a $13 billion deal over a combined ten years.  This is nothing discovered by the Freedom of Information Act.  Robert Gates and Condoleeza Rice went to these countries, hammered out a deal, and we are going to probably sell a bunch of stuff to Georgia and Romania and all these new NATO countries because we make a lot of money doing that.

So, basically, we fill the world with arms almost guaranteeing future conflicts.  And, we will crow about our tactical, operation, and strategic superiority to take the fight to the enemy, anytime, anywhere.  Quite often, you find that we are being shot by stuff we sold to these people. 

Part II of REAX's Exclusive interview with Henry Rollins will be posted tomorrow.

Henry Rollins' "Recount Tour" will be hitting the following Florida cities and dates:

Sept. 26 Lake Buena Vista, FL House of Blues
Sept. 27 Fort Lauderdale, FL Revolution
Sept. 28 Fort Lauderdale, FL Revolution
Sept. 29 Tampa, FL Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center