Nothing good came out of 9/11
September 10, 2011
Mankato Free Press
By Tom Maertens
Shakespeare wrote (in Henry VI) that “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good,” implying that somebody usually benefits from misfortune.
There were no silver linings in 9/11, however. Beyond the thousands of dead and injured, the financial damage, and the psychological trauma, we have launched a perpetual war against “terrorism” that has led to a militarization of our foreign and domestic policies, created more potential terrorists, and seriously eroded our civil liberties.
Sending forces into Afghanistan to destroy bin Laden’s safe haven — an operation I helped plan — was warranted at the time. But 10 years later, bin Laden is dead and al Qaida moribund, yet we still have 100,000 troops fighting in Afghanistan with no coherent goals and no exit strategy. For this we are paying $100 billion a year. Worse, we are negotiating to keep troops there until 2024.
What was completely unwarranted was the unprovoked attack against Saddam Hussein that the neoconservatives ginned up, using a manufactured weapons of mass destruction threat and a trumped-up al-Qaida connection. Neither claim was true, but 10 years and thousands of casualties later, we still have troops in Iraq and are seeking to extend their stay there, too.
Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes calculate that long-run costs of the two wars will total at least $5 trillion and possibly $7 trillion.
Bush’s Global War on Terror has produced a national security state that claims the right to torture suspects in the national interest, to eavesdrop on citizens without warrants, and to arrest or preventively detain peaceful protesters for anything that law enforcement labels “suspicious.”
It has also, for the first time since 1878, involved the military in domestic intelligence collection and law enforcement. The CBO last year attributed 35 percent of the deficit since 2001 to increases in national security spending, principally for Iran and Afghanistan, but including 263 government organizations created or reconfigured since 9/11, and a 250 percent increase in intelligence spending.
James Madison warned that “No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continuous war.” And, he might have added, continuous war will bankrupt its economy.
Mankato Free Press
By Tom Maertens
Shakespeare wrote (in Henry VI) that “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good,” implying that somebody usually benefits from misfortune.
There were no silver linings in 9/11, however. Beyond the thousands of dead and injured, the financial damage, and the psychological trauma, we have launched a perpetual war against “terrorism” that has led to a militarization of our foreign and domestic policies, created more potential terrorists, and seriously eroded our civil liberties.
Sending forces into Afghanistan to destroy bin Laden’s safe haven — an operation I helped plan — was warranted at the time. But 10 years later, bin Laden is dead and al Qaida moribund, yet we still have 100,000 troops fighting in Afghanistan with no coherent goals and no exit strategy. For this we are paying $100 billion a year. Worse, we are negotiating to keep troops there until 2024.
What was completely unwarranted was the unprovoked attack against Saddam Hussein that the neoconservatives ginned up, using a manufactured weapons of mass destruction threat and a trumped-up al-Qaida connection. Neither claim was true, but 10 years and thousands of casualties later, we still have troops in Iraq and are seeking to extend their stay there, too.
Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes calculate that long-run costs of the two wars will total at least $5 trillion and possibly $7 trillion.
Bush’s Global War on Terror has produced a national security state that claims the right to torture suspects in the national interest, to eavesdrop on citizens without warrants, and to arrest or preventively detain peaceful protesters for anything that law enforcement labels “suspicious.”
It has also, for the first time since 1878, involved the military in domestic intelligence collection and law enforcement. The CBO last year attributed 35 percent of the deficit since 2001 to increases in national security spending, principally for Iran and Afghanistan, but including 263 government organizations created or reconfigured since 9/11, and a 250 percent increase in intelligence spending.
James Madison warned that “No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continuous war.” And, he might have added, continuous war will bankrupt its economy.
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