Victory against Al-Quaida?
Hardly.
Among the terrorist goals of Osama Bin Laden were these: to instill fear into Western civilization, especially the United States, and to bring the powerful financial system of the West to its knees.
Ever since 9-11, Republicans have used fear for their basic appeal to Americans, and Americans have bought it.
Ever since 9-11, we have spent—out of fear--trillions of dollars fighting two futile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars are useless. No outcome will bring victory to the West. The so-called enemy is thousands upon thousands of years old and will remain no matter how great our effort to bomb them into democracy. As soon as we leave, everything will return to the way it was before we intervened, the only difference being the enormous profits which the military-industrial complex have collected.
Ever since 9-11, our economic system has failed twice in gigantic proportions, and Americans like you and me have lost wealth in significant amounts. Except for the upper classes. The wealthy continue to grow their wealth as the middle classes and poor continue to lose wealth. Corporations with the help of the political process, especially Republicans, are making record profits. Chief among the reasons are that they are finding labor in other countries which will work for pennies a day compared to significantly higher wages expected by Americans. Consequently, Americans are going unemployed which has the effect of reducing taxes and reducing economic activity in this country. It also has the effect of depressing wages. The vicious circle continues to spiral downward and will continue to do so until voters elect representatives who will represent them and not the wealthy interests, the corporations, the banks, Wall Street, and the insurance companies.
The irony is that we had ample warning by two iconic Presidents years before this situation arose. President Dwight D. Eisenhower made very clear the threat of the military industrial complex to this country. His words have been prophetic.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Now that we have forgotten or otherwise ignored those wise words and fear has taken over the country, we are seeing how it is tearing us apart and producing a politics, such as the politics of the Tea Party, which seems bent on destroying America as we know it.
Tom
