Tuesday, May 10, 2011

strange new enemies in an everchanging war..,

DailyReckoning | Times have changed. When governments sent out hit squads to kill someone, they used to keep quiet about it. But this time, Obama called a national press conference to claim credit. His poll ratings rose.

Rarely has a killing been such a crowd pleaser. There was dancing in the streets. It recalled the happy mob that kicked around Louis 16th’s head or the crowd that spat upon Mussolini’s corpse. Americans were jubilant. The newspapers were universally joyful and upbeat. “Mission accomplished,” said the editorials.

Arms maker Berretta took out a full-page ad in the weekend USA Today to applaud the Navy SEALS who pulled the trigger. Beretta and other handgun makers typically apologize when their products are used to kill unarmed civilians. This time, they were using it to gain market share.

And feeling their oats, US officials decided to try to make it two for two, with a drone attack on a “terror suspect,” in Yemen. The radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi survived, reported the Hong Kong paper.

Asked where in the Constitution the federal government was given the right to murder people, Eric Holder, US Attorney General, replied that this was certainly not murder. And not an assassination either. This was war! Osama bin Laden was an enemy combatant. US forces mounted an operation to kill him, as they might target an opposing general. Fair and square.

But if Osama bin Laden were an enemy general, his was a strange army. How many divisions did he have? Where were his warships? His aircraft carriers? His submarines? Where were his tanks? And his trained legions? He had no army. No navy. No marines. No air force. Not even a few praetorians guarding his headquarters. He was almost alone. No Swiss guards, no home guard; for there was no homeland to guard. And not a single troop carrier, for there were no troops and nowhere to take them. He had no tanks. No fighter planes. No bombers. No artillery. In fact, his most effective weapon was the lowly box cutter.

Why waste drones on Osama bin Laden? He posed no real threat to the government of the United States of America. Even in his own backyard, he was a loser. He was unable to take over a single woebegone, Muslim-drenched country in the Mid-East. There was never any question that he would be able to defeat the US.

Nor was he a substantial threat to the American people. For all his box cutters and suicidal followers, statistically – according to The Financial Times – he did less damage to Americans than accidents caused by wild deer. In the 10 years following the announcement of the War on Terror, as far as we know, he was not responsible for a single North American casualty. As a general, he was worse than any we ever heard of; even Sir Douglas Haig was not that bad.

Osama bin Laden didn’t pose a threat to the US or its people; instead, the danger he posed was more like the danger of an interest-only, low-doc, automatically reset mortgage with a teaser rate. Bin Laden, in an early video address, announced his strategy. He could sucker the US into spending an enormous amount of money to combat him. He would not try to defeat the US on the field of battle; instead, he would lure the giant into expenses it could not afford.

And lo, it has come to pass just as the bearded one forecast. According to The Financial Times, the US has spent $2 trillion on the war against terror…or about a million times more than Osama bin Laden spent.

26 comments:

umbrarchist said...

{{{ the US has spent $2 trillion on the war against terror… }}}


But where was most of it spent?


The government took money from taxpayers and gave it to American security companies. So it was a scam run on the American people.


And our engineering schools can't explain the importance of the distribution of steel in skyscrapers and thus cannot tell us the tons of steel that were on every level of the WTC towers. And this from the nation that put men on the Moon.


The United States should be laughed at for the next 1000 years.


DUH! It's called PHYSICS!

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umbrarchist said...

It is really about the dominance of European Culture on the planet and Euro-think.


We are Euro-Borg.


Resistance is Futile.



http://hitanalyst.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/borg.jpg

CNu said...

That's the beauty of warsocialism Umbra. In effect in the U.S. since 1941 - and how the Great Depression was brought to an end.

CNu said...

Which is a more accurate and encompassing description Umbra, "European Culture" or "Dopamine Hegemony"? How can you call it the former when it appears that ALL the world's governing elites now subscribe to it as the primary system of governance?

umbrarchist said...

The elites became European. I thought it was rather funny at the time but when I was in a White fraternity the White dudes acted like I was being "intelligent" when I was conforming to their behavior. It is like they presume they control people with psychological rewards.


But the Laws of Physics do not give a damn about any culture. Physics does not care about dopamine. The cars wear out and the carbon collects in the atmosphere and the ocean. What is the European rationale for not making accounting mandatory in the schools? Oh, they don't even discuss that as an option. What does that have to do with dopamine?


.

CNu said...

The elites became European.

Some - and we call them the Trans-European Protectorate

White fraternity the White dudes acted like I was being "intelligent"
when I was conforming to their behavior. It is like they presume they
control people with psychological rewards.


Sounds like parents, employers, livestock ranchers, churches, etc...,

What does that have to do with dopamine?

Not only the whole system of psychological rewards, but the very essence of status-seeking "values" in this culture is fundamentally dopaminergic. (I suspect you have no idea what a seratoninergic alternative model might look like?) http://subrealism.blogspot.com/search?q=dopamine+hegemony

You live in a neuroeconomic construct that runs MUCH deeper than any rudimentary G/L accounting will ever disclose....,

umbrarchist said...

But the Laws of Physics do not care about STATUS.


Isn't a Rolls Royce a great Status Symbol? But a turbine car almost won the Indy 500 in 1968 and then turbines were banned. So what sense does a high status car with a piston engine make 40 years after the Moon landing?


We are indoctrinated with ideas about status that are technological nonsense. But in order to be manipulated we have to BELIEVE the nonsense.
My expensive piston engined trash is better than your piston engined trash. LOL

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Dale Asberry said...

Umbra, you're a poster child for anosognosia.


Good luck on your quest to use physics and accounting to solve the world's problems.

Dale Asberry said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan

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