Bin Laden won
Osama bin Laden won.
Yes, he is dead. But his attack on the US in 2001 has hurt the United States as much as any attack in our history. Loss of life, treasure and stature has left the US bereft of young lives interupted by wars, an economy in taters, and the idea of America itself at a low ebb.
Yes there have been wars with much greater bloodshed. Over 400,000 Amricans died in the second world war. But ten years after the USS Arizona sank beneath the water in Pearl Harbor, Americans were reaching for unheard of opportunities in education, work, and equal rights for all citizens. The economy was the unrivaled leader of the world, such that it rebuilt other nations' economies ravaged by war, giving hundreds of millions of people new hope for the future. Every people looked to the US as the model of freedom, particularly billions of people soon to free themselves of colonial rule. Can the nation make the same claim ten years after the World Trade Towers collapsed to the ground in New York City?
The human toll of war has been devastating. Over 6000 American young men and women have been killed in wars stimulated by bin Laden's attacks. Tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghans have died. Because of advances in military medical science, tens of thousands of soldiers have survived physical wounds but are permanently maimed. As the war has lasted longer than any other American war, millions of young people have served in undefined, unending battles leaving thousands of them emotionally maimed. Families of the dead and wounded have had their lives torn apart much like the bodies of their soldiers. As the son of a mentally disabled soldier from the second world war, I can attest the wounds of war are in a grim way psychologically contagious. So millions of Americans have been left wounded by war. With the all volunteer military, most soldiers come from the bottom of our society, where opportunities and hope have been declining for decades already. So the wounded are doubly damned.
The war has had huge financial costs. Estimates vary according to one's political leanings, but somewhere between one and two trillion dollars have been spent by the federal government on the wars and attempts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. Taxes were never raised to pay for the wars, in fact they were lowered, so the cost of the federal outlays will be passed on to future American families.
But the financial cost is not limited to the appropriations for weapons, contractors, and other direct expenses of war. When the economy faltered after the attacks, interest rates were lowered to stimulate growth. There was growth, particularly in residential construction. Now building houses is a worthy economic activity as it gives people places to live. But it's not an investment in furthering the economy, like building industrial facilities or civic infrastructure. The problem was the low interest stimulated housing bubbles that collapsed, sending the economy into the worst recession in decades, destroying wealth, jobs, and lives.
The government has spent close to one and a half trillion dollars between bank bailouts, stimulus packages, and tax cuts to arrest the affect of the recession. Some have estimated the total cost to the US economy alone of the recession is over ten trillion dollars. The recession was caused by fiscal policies enacted in response to the 2001 attacks.
The attacks on September 11, 2001 brought great sympathy to the US from the world. People from nations not entirely friendly to the US were revolted by the attacks. Goodwill toward the US was greater than any time in decades as its people suffered the same senseless murder that other nations had endured. The positive leadership earned by not going on rampages around the world, apart from remote Afghanistan, unknown and uncared for by the world after decades of relentless bloodshed, was squandered on an invasion of Iraq, a nation that the US had supported and supplied in the past. Regard for the US dropped to levels reminiscent of the days of the Vietman War. Only the election and subsequent accomadating policies of a charismatic mixed-race president has rebuilt the reputation lost in the wars.
The attacks left thousands of widows, widowers, and orphans. To avoid lawsuits, the government allotted billions of dollars to compensate the victims' families. But it allotted the money according to wealth--to whom had more, more was given and to whom had less, less was given. A stock trader family would receive millions, a custodian family maybe a hundred thousand. The average compensation was in the neighborhood of 400,000 dollars. Until recently, the family of a soldier killed in battle received 10,000 dollars and a monthly benefit of a little over 1,100 dollars. So Americans placed less value on a soldier defending the nation than a stock broker.
Thanks to the attacks, Americans have accepted previously unacceptable actions by its government in the name of their security. The Patriot Act allows the government to eaves-drop in the daily lives and finances of citizens. The opening of the prison at Guantonamo with arbitrary incarceration of inmates for over ten years as well as torture is condoned, at least of people considered enemies of the US. The killings of foreigners by the CIA during the cold war was found repulsive by the people and put to a stop. Such killings go on today via drone strikes and special forces units and there is barely a word of dissent. Even the killing of US citizens without due process is accepted. The moral high ground as a bastion for human rights and freedom has been sacrificed for the safe comfort of a empire assailed by jealous enemies. Franklin said "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.". What would Ben think of us today?
So bin Laden won. Marx said a capitalist would sell the rope to hang himself. Though a murderer, bin Laden saw that he could not destroy America with his band of men without hope. He did see that America could destroy itself if provided the chance.
Yes, he is dead. But his attack on the US in 2001 has hurt the United States as much as any attack in our history. Loss of life, treasure and stature has left the US bereft of young lives interupted by wars, an economy in taters, and the idea of America itself at a low ebb.
Yes there have been wars with much greater bloodshed. Over 400,000 Amricans died in the second world war. But ten years after the USS Arizona sank beneath the water in Pearl Harbor, Americans were reaching for unheard of opportunities in education, work, and equal rights for all citizens. The economy was the unrivaled leader of the world, such that it rebuilt other nations' economies ravaged by war, giving hundreds of millions of people new hope for the future. Every people looked to the US as the model of freedom, particularly billions of people soon to free themselves of colonial rule. Can the nation make the same claim ten years after the World Trade Towers collapsed to the ground in New York City?
The human toll of war has been devastating. Over 6000 American young men and women have been killed in wars stimulated by bin Laden's attacks. Tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghans have died. Because of advances in military medical science, tens of thousands of soldiers have survived physical wounds but are permanently maimed. As the war has lasted longer than any other American war, millions of young people have served in undefined, unending battles leaving thousands of them emotionally maimed. Families of the dead and wounded have had their lives torn apart much like the bodies of their soldiers. As the son of a mentally disabled soldier from the second world war, I can attest the wounds of war are in a grim way psychologically contagious. So millions of Americans have been left wounded by war. With the all volunteer military, most soldiers come from the bottom of our society, where opportunities and hope have been declining for decades already. So the wounded are doubly damned.
The war has had huge financial costs. Estimates vary according to one's political leanings, but somewhere between one and two trillion dollars have been spent by the federal government on the wars and attempts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. Taxes were never raised to pay for the wars, in fact they were lowered, so the cost of the federal outlays will be passed on to future American families.
But the financial cost is not limited to the appropriations for weapons, contractors, and other direct expenses of war. When the economy faltered after the attacks, interest rates were lowered to stimulate growth. There was growth, particularly in residential construction. Now building houses is a worthy economic activity as it gives people places to live. But it's not an investment in furthering the economy, like building industrial facilities or civic infrastructure. The problem was the low interest stimulated housing bubbles that collapsed, sending the economy into the worst recession in decades, destroying wealth, jobs, and lives.
The government has spent close to one and a half trillion dollars between bank bailouts, stimulus packages, and tax cuts to arrest the affect of the recession. Some have estimated the total cost to the US economy alone of the recession is over ten trillion dollars. The recession was caused by fiscal policies enacted in response to the 2001 attacks.
The attacks on September 11, 2001 brought great sympathy to the US from the world. People from nations not entirely friendly to the US were revolted by the attacks. Goodwill toward the US was greater than any time in decades as its people suffered the same senseless murder that other nations had endured. The positive leadership earned by not going on rampages around the world, apart from remote Afghanistan, unknown and uncared for by the world after decades of relentless bloodshed, was squandered on an invasion of Iraq, a nation that the US had supported and supplied in the past. Regard for the US dropped to levels reminiscent of the days of the Vietman War. Only the election and subsequent accomadating policies of a charismatic mixed-race president has rebuilt the reputation lost in the wars.
The attacks left thousands of widows, widowers, and orphans. To avoid lawsuits, the government allotted billions of dollars to compensate the victims' families. But it allotted the money according to wealth--to whom had more, more was given and to whom had less, less was given. A stock trader family would receive millions, a custodian family maybe a hundred thousand. The average compensation was in the neighborhood of 400,000 dollars. Until recently, the family of a soldier killed in battle received 10,000 dollars and a monthly benefit of a little over 1,100 dollars. So Americans placed less value on a soldier defending the nation than a stock broker.
Thanks to the attacks, Americans have accepted previously unacceptable actions by its government in the name of their security. The Patriot Act allows the government to eaves-drop in the daily lives and finances of citizens. The opening of the prison at Guantonamo with arbitrary incarceration of inmates for over ten years as well as torture is condoned, at least of people considered enemies of the US. The killings of foreigners by the CIA during the cold war was found repulsive by the people and put to a stop. Such killings go on today via drone strikes and special forces units and there is barely a word of dissent. Even the killing of US citizens without due process is accepted. The moral high ground as a bastion for human rights and freedom has been sacrificed for the safe comfort of a empire assailed by jealous enemies. Franklin said "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.". What would Ben think of us today?
So bin Laden won. Marx said a capitalist would sell the rope to hang himself. Though a murderer, bin Laden saw that he could not destroy America with his band of men without hope. He did see that America could destroy itself if provided the chance.
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