A Commentary by Doug Draper
Remember one of the first things U.S. president George W. Bush told the American people following September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks?
He may be dead, as this Time cover shows, but who's winning the war?
Well, there aren’t too many Americans going out and buying lots of stuff now, even if they are flocking to air-conditioned malls to escape the heat – at least not according to some of the latest consumer statistics in that country, which show everything from the sale of goods in retail stores to the sale of big ticket items like homes and cars down.
And why wouldn’t sales be down. With an alarmingly high nine per cent unemployment rate and many more millions who have simply given up finding a job in a country on the verge of financial bankruptcy, it is surprising there is anything other than a ‘going out of business’ sale.
It may be instructive to remember what W’s arch nemesis Osama bin Laden said back six or seven years ago when W and his brain, Dick Cheney, marched America into two trillion-dollar wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without ever once asking the wealthier members of the American power structure to give up an extra cent in taxes to pay for them.
“We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy,” said bin Laden, who was obviously a murderous psycho but wasn’t completely stupid when it came to draining empires of their wealth, in one of his natorious tapes.
“We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah,” bin Laden said in the transcript. He went on to say that “mujahedeen fighters” successfully pulled off the same war-of-attrition stunt on the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s “We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.”
So here we are today, with a United States that is spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on unnesessary and ultimately unwinnable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq while its schools, its hospitals, its libraries, police, firefighting and other services wilt, and its bridges and other infrascture crumble compared to those in upcoming superpowers like India and China.
One good thing U.S. President Barack Obama did this spring was say yes to a couple of helicopters full of special forces in to Pakistan, where bin Laden was really hiding, and take this madman out. That was a win.
But who is ultimately winning the war on terrorism, bin Laden’s band of wackos or an America that has just seen its Triple-A credit rating (an event that could spin that country and ours into another crushing recession) lost for the first time since 1917? All countries, including Canada where we have a government now wanting to spend billions more of our treasure on military actions rather than on building our own communities, ought to give all of this some thought.
Niagara At Large 
The cost of war is not often mentioned during American budget talks while they shamelessly pass much of the burden onto people who can least afford it, including seniors and those using Medicare.
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Ralph Nader was quoted as saying it matters not who one votes for in this country, Democrat or Republican they are both owned by corporate interests (the rich or so called Elite) who have fattened their own bottom line by moving moving factories and outsourcing to countries where the standard of living is atrocious thus through this selfish act the American standard is falling to the level or below those countries being used by corporate Interests and Canada is no different as we have become a “Service” orientated work force….So much for FIRA and our manufacturing capabilities, Pierre?.
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Isn’t it amazing I was talking with a friend in Ohio who manages a high end retail store featuring ladies wear that caters basically to the more affluent sector of society and she tells me her business is up 10% over last year.
Yet the struggling masses suffer the pains of unemployment and if lucky have two maybe three minimum wage jobs just to survive. This in a country that was once the Manufacturing empire of the world.. Canada beware the slope is slippery when war is God
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The American situation is because the tax funded school system deliberately does not teach history. If history were taught correctly and accurately, many more Americans would realize they were being led along by a handful of obscenely wealthy bankers to form an empire that like all empires will go broke and die.
I use James Dale Davidson and Sir William Rees-Mogg’s definition of empire — one group or nation with economic and military might necessary to enforce peace to the periphery of the empire.
There is only one empire at a time. For those who study history, the parallels between Roman and American empires are astounding.
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The US spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined. Their interference only propogates more hatred against the west but they just can’t seem to mind their own business. Of course their interference is designed to acquire more wealth for those already disgustingly wealthy.
It always backfires on them too. As for Canada, why do we need more military spending? Is Greenland going to invade Baffin Island?
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An illegal war against Iraq was sold as a rightgeous war to get rid of a despot, in the movie “9/11 Farenheit ” we have the Carlisle group stating this war would be a cakewalk and the oil rewards would be great, the reality is the exact oposite two trillion dollars borrowed from China and the deaths of patriotic americans who bought into the credos of the W Bush adminisration.Bin Laden had a willing partner in the Republican held White House. It appears every body in the whole world is paying the price for “W” s bungling of a poliitical disaster.
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