Did al-Qaeda Succeed? By Robert Parry

[laststeamtrain]

Did al-Qaeda Succeed?

By Robert Parry
September 11, 2008

Ten years after the neoconservatives laid out plans for permanent U.S. global dominance – and seven years after the brutal 9/11 attacks gave them the opening to carry out those plans – the neocons instead have guided the United States onto the shoals of a political/military disaster and the prospect of rapid decline.

This grim result from the neocons’ overreach is an unstated subtext of the U.S. intelligence community’s project for assessing the world in 2025, a point 17 years into the future when the United States is likely to have lost its current world dominance, according to a preview offered by the government’s top intelligence analyst.

Speaking at a Sept. 4 conference in Orlando, Florida, Thomas Fingar, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, said the United States might still be “the preeminent power” in 2025, but that “American dominance will be much diminished.”

Further, Fingar projected that the United States would see the greatest declines in the most important areas of global influence, the economic and the cultural, while likely maintaining military supremacy, which would be of lesser importance.

<snip>

While the rest of the world appears eager to get on with expanded commerce and technological competition, the United States looks like it can’t stop clumsily throwing its military weight around, amid chants of “USA, USA.”

So, as U.S. intelligence continues work on its projections for 2025, the nation finds itself at a crossroads. It can give the neocons around John McCain another four-year lease on the White House – so they can keep doing what they’ve been doing – or the country can take another direction.

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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/091008.html

[blm]

1. We should all send this article to Obama campaign. It will be useful during debates.

Parry is the BEST.

[blondie58]

2. great article, laststeamtrain

and my first thought was yes, they've won. We have bankrupted our country and lost any remaining goodwill in the world.

[Chisox08]

3. I hate to say it but

Yes Al-Qaeda won. We gave up our freedoms and privacy (PATRIOT Act and FISA). Our Economy is in the tank (Highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression). Our millitary is overstreached and overworked because of two wars while the Bush Administration is beating the drums for war with Iran and Russia.Our infustructure is failing. We have pulled all of our soilders out of Saudi Arabia (One of Bin Ladin's demands before 9/11).