Though Dead – Will We Allow Him TO Have The Last Laugh?

by Dee Newman

In November of 2004 Osama bin Laden told us that his goal was to “bleed America to the point of bankruptcy.” He went on to say that he had found it easy “to provoke and bait” the Bush administration and that America would suffer major human and economic losses while Bush’s buddies would rake in enormous profits. 

“ The real loser is you," he said. "It is the American people and their economy."

Yesterday, May 1, was the 9th anniversary of Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" declaration back in 2003. It was more than a year earlier, in 2001, that Bush told us that he would capture bin Laden "dead or alive."

Bush never did.

Though President Obama did, Osama bin Laden will surely have the last laugh if we continue this endless, unpaid for War on Terror. Bin Laden's goal to bleed us to the point of bankruptcy  will be realized.

We do not have the resources for nation building, not even for our own, let a lone, a country on the other side of the world . . . a country with a corrupt and failing government that continues to rely on cruel and repressive warlords.

To believe we can transform Afghanistan into a modern functioning state is ludicrous. A year ago we were teetering on the brink of an economic melt down, another Great Depression – mainly because of our reaction to 9/11 just as bin Laden had planned. Though we may no longer be teetering, we are still too damn close to the edge to try to transform any failing government but our own.

Please, Mr. President, stop the “bleeding!“ It cannot continue unabated, if this nation is to survive. Think about the jobs that will not be created here in the US, think about the money that will be squandered on an un-winnable war and that will never be invested in health care, our children's educations, and rebuilding the infrastructure we need to compete economically in the world.

We cannot possibly succeed. Ask the Russians. Ask Genghis Khan. Societies are not changed in two years or even in a single generation. The corruption of the Afghan government, the deaths and suffering of civilians caused by US and NATO forces is too great for us to ever win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. They will never rally behind the Karzai government or the occupation of their country by our armed forces.

As I said to President Bush – if the war against al Qaeda is truly vital to our national interests and security, then damn-it, implement a draft, and force us all to sacrifice. Stop allowing less than 2 percent of those eligible for military service to do the fighting for us – again and again and again. And for the sake and well being of us all, have the courage to increase our taxes in order to pay for it. Make us all sacrifice! Then and only then, will we truly know what is at stake.

Otherwise, get the hell out!