No Longer: 'Bin Laden Will Have Won'

He Won Big, We Lost Way Big  

          As we count down to the seventh anniversary of 9/11, almost for- gotten were these words uttered three months later: "Dead or alive....It doesn't matter to me....And so, he may hide for a while, but we'll get him." Those words were spoken by George Bush, Dec. 14, 2001.
          The excuse for subsequent actions by the Bush administration, an attitude that filtered down into the rest of a frightened American soci- ety at ridiculously low levels, was "if we don't do this, Osama bin Laden will have won," or conversely, "if we do this, Bin Laden will have won."
          Osama bin Laden won years ago. He began to win the moment the United States turned its troops and attention away from him and Af- ghanistan and invaded Iraq by mistake.
          Directly, Bin Laden was responsible for more than 3,000 lives in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, a bit less directly for dozens others on United 93. That should have been his victory tally. Instead, the evi- dence continues to pile up that Bin Laden won big--hugely.
          The United States one-upped Bin Laden by sending more than 4,000 soldiers to their deaths in Iraq and turned tens of thousands more soldiers into mere shadows of their former selves. Never mind private cit- izens, both guilty and innocent. As a society, we like to tell families of the fallen they did not die in vain, but sadly, more often than not, they did.
          Bin Laden could not have foreseen such an irrational act as an in- vasion of Iraq, but he must have relished in it--still relishes in it. After all, that insane move siphoned off troops and their attention not only away from him, but also from Afghanistan, now poised to rise again, quite pos- sibly under his erstwhile Taliban hosts.
          But there is more--much more proof Bin Laden won.
          It was speculated early on that he attacked the Twin Towers be- cause they were symbols of U.S. capitalism and its economy deemed by Al-Qaeda to repesent a world they considered antithetical to Islamic tenets, particularly their own fanatic version of it. But the United States decided to give him a greater reward than a limited impact of the 9/11 attack, such as a shut-down of all air traffic and the disruption that justifi- able action caused for days.
          Instead, the United States gave him treatment of its own citizens as criminals at airports and subsequently all sorts of violations of written and unwritten rules that used to say what America was all about.
          Washington, D.C., including the nation's Capitol, once called the people's house, has been turned into an armed fortress along with just about all other federal facilities. The manufacturer of Jersey barriers must have retired fabulously wealthy years ago, leaving the field to makers of more-attractive bollards.
          All kinds of Draconian measures were adopted to "protect" the citizenry, most of them merely actions in the name of security that ac- tually offer no real security, just the feel-good appearance of it. We have managed, supposedly, to protect against a repeat of what already hap- pened and may have happened, but not much against a new tactic.
          Most of all, the Bush administration reacted by trashing the Con- stitution, the bedrock document of our nation and its people. Those sins are too numerous to list here and will be recounted later.
          Our invasion of iraq without the global support we had up to that point in Afghanistan helped secure the perception and fear that as the only super power in a post-Cold War world, the United States would be come an international bully. Bush and his Dr. Strangelove sidekick, Dick Cheney demonstrated that fear was justified.
          Our international relations are in shambles and no one trusts any- thing the Unite States says, not even its own people. It will take years to regain our credibility at home and abroad.
          We violated international treaties, agreements and conventions of war to the point, as John McCain has stressed repeatedly, our troops present and future, as well as public and private citizens, are exposed to similar treatment if they are captured.
          We provided the best recruitment fodder for Al-Qaeda, provided a training ground in Iraq, renamed them insurgents and drove them back to Afghanistan where we and international troops are having to fight them again.
          We drained our own manpower resources to the extent the gov- ernment at all levels is unable to respond adequately to other disasters within our borders and our military is nakedly unable to respond to a real world crisis. We appear to have lucked out so far, as cooler heads pre- vailed abroad.
          We squandered a $1 trillion budget surplus that existed before 9/11 and turned it into a deficit that will continue to rise for the next few years, regardless of who wins the White House. A deficit means in- creased debt, for which we borrow money from investors by giving them promissory notes as collateral. A quarter of those notes are held by for- eign entities, mostly governments, and a major chunk of it is owned by China. As Hillary Clinton notes, the more we owe the less clout we have with our bankers.
          All of this activity occurred with Republicans in charge of all three branches of the federal government, one of which spent 10 years lookiing the other way when it came to federal regulation.
          Even after the American people grew weary of the mal-, mis- and nonfeasance of the government and turned the legislature back to Demo- crats, the new leaders in the House, where presidential impeachments must begin, ruled it out before Bush/Cheney even began the final two years of their trashing of America. The trashing proved to be the final act of a process that began in 1995 when the GOP gained control of all three branches and put out their contract on America.
          Thus, all the powers that Bush grabbed will be left to the next president, who is not likely to give them up, no matter the party affilia- tion of the Oval Office occupant.
          The nation has been plunged into a recession most of its citizens know already has begun, but which the government will not acknowledge officially until near the end of this year. By that time, Bush and Cheney will be cleaning out their desks and preparing to head home to comfort- able multi-million dollar digs while the citizens scramble to get back on their collective feet. That latter effort will be hampered because Republi- cans as part of their contract made it harder for them, but not busines- ses, to declare bankruptcy.
          And while Bush and Cheney are lighting up their cigars, Bin Lad- en is free to fight another day with a stronger army and with more friends against an emaciated America.
          No, we don't hear people saying any more, "do this or Bin Laden will have won" or "don't do this or we will be playing into Bin Laden's hands."