Could any enemy of ours have designed a better way to drain our resources

[KlatooBNikto]

than to make us go on endless wars? As we go around the globe setting off our new high tech weapons at Third World nations the joke is going to be on us when we run out of money for our roman candles.

[teryang]

1. The joke is going to be on us

Did you see how desperately the chimp was clinging to Putin at the APEC summit? Why Putin keeps throwing him a bone, I don't know. Perhaps he is buying time or appeasing the madman.

What better way to weaken your enemy than to bolster the power of a leadership headed toward diaster.

[UL_Approved]

2. The enemy is in charge here

Our own administration is the enemy, but they waste OUR resources and lives, and take our money on the side.

[Maddy McCall]

3. That is precisely the goal of terrorism--warning--long post. :-)

It's not unique to this "war." Historically, forcing your militarily superior enemy to dilute resources--to spread money and manpower thin--is the main terrorist objective.

Whether or not we are hit again by terrorists is irrelevant. They have forced the government to shift to the right and to fight an invisible enemy. All Osama has to do to continue the war is make another video threatening to blow something up or to unleash a bio-chem agent, and our government responds by spending financial resources and taking manpower away from the places it is needed. The citizenry must fund the "fight" through their rising taxes--and they are actually paying more, yet getting less, since law enforcement is engaged with a shadow enemy instead of responding to the real needs of taxpaers--and they must tolerate loss of civil liberties, which an inevitible cost of terrorism.

Believe me, I don't like it one bit--the loss of civil liberties--but, again, this is not a new occurrence. Check out the Rote Armee Faction--the Red Army Faction, which, in 1960s-70s Germany, undertook terrorism with the goal of forcing the German government to expend resources and to shift to the extreme right--to force the gov. to tighten down on the populace as it sought out and fought the invisible enemy. Ultimately, the restrictive government and residual loss of civil liberties would result in a popular leftist backlash against the German government, with possible overthrow of the rightist government. So basically, the RAF pushed right to move the government to the left.

The goal of terrorism is to cause paranoia among the enemy government and populace. That paranoia, which is inevitable, forces the government to dilute resources and to clamp down on its citizens.

In all actuality, it was the success of the 1990s Gulf War that brought us to the predicament we now face--global war, chasing down shadows, spreading your resources thin. Because Desert Storm was SOOOO successful and quick, people who observed the war realized that they could never face us on the battlefield, that they would have to strike us under the belt to hurt us. Thus, September 11,2001.

I am sorry to rattle on and on, and I apologize if I strayed away from the concerns of your original post--the topic of terrorism really intrigues me on the academic level, and I love to discuss it with others and to discuss it with my students. So far, everything that has happened since September 11 has paralleled theories and historical examples--the events have been entirely predictable to military historians who study nonconventional warfare. I hope that others who read this will add their comments to mine.

[JNelson6563]

5. Ancient tactic

Let's look back to 1066 shall we? That was when William the conquerer went to England to seize the throne. Poor Harold Goodwinson had to meet his brother and invading force in the north and then high-tail it to the other end of the coast to fend off the Normans. His resources were no match for battles at either end of the country and he lost his throne.

We are no match for all those who want to crush the US. We may be the biggest and strongest but we aren't bigger and stronger than everyone else put together.

Team Bush is comprised of idiots.

Julie

[teryang]

8. It isn't terrorism causing the colossal military spending

...that's just hogwash. It's a cold war defense budget with all the aerospace and full spectrum dominance bs such as we had during the height of the Vietnam era except worse. The enormous cost of the war in Iraq or the National Missile Defense system has nothing to do with terrorism as has so often been stated. The enormous cost of the war in Iraq is due to the asymetric nature of a guerilla conflict conducted thousands of miles from home at the very limits of our force projection capabilities.

You don't need multi-billion dollar B2s or nuclear weapons to fight terrorists. You obviously can't find bin Laden with a satellite despite dubious claims to the contrary. In point of fact, the reduced manpower of our military represents a distinct lack of capability in order to shift maximum funding to private defense contractors who profit enormously from "terrorist" propaganda. Bin Laden works for the CIA/ISI/Mossad/Saudi axis.

[bowens43]

4. Bush reacted exactly the way bin laden wanted him to react.

That's why the 911 attacks happened on bushes watch rather then Clinton's. They needed the perfect fool in the oval office in order for their plan to work. When bush was appointed they knew that the time was right. Drunken cowboy diplomacy was exactly what they needed.

[dbt]

6. Just maybe bu$h pushed bin Laden into

pushing him into "reacting" the way it appears that bin Laden wanted him to react. (Head...hurting...must...press...on.)

How else does one account for the fact that bin Laden is still running around loose--unless that's what bu$h's handlers have had in mind all along?

:freak:
dbt

[sam sarrha]

7. That is why Bin Forgotten made that Oct appearence.. he knew it would make

bush win and TOTALLY DESTROY US. he is a clever man

[Deja Q]

10. But what about his latest nuke threat?

Or would that be a ploy too?

[DireStrike]

9. Bin Laden gave away his plan...

Why did he say, in his tape, exactly what he was trying to do?

Either he is arrogant and stupid, or that isn't his plan.

All warfare is based on deception.