Bin Laden succeeded in economic strategy

[my2sense]

WASHINGTON — Did Osama bin Laden win? No. Did he succeed? Well, America is still standing, and he isn't. So why did Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counterterrorism expert who specializes in al-Qaida, say, "Bin Laden has been enormously successful"? There's no caliphate. There's no sweeping sharia law. Didn't we win this one in a clean knockout?

Apparently not. Bin Laden, according to Gartenstein-Ross, had a strategy that Americans never bothered to understand, and thus that they never bothered to defend against. What he really wanted to do — and, more to the point, what he thought he could do — was bankrupt the United States. After all, he'd done the bankrupt-a-superpower thing before. And while it didn't quite work out this time, it worked a lot better than most, in this exultant moment, are willing to admit.

Bin Laden's transition from scion of a wealthy family to terrorist mastermind came in the 1980s, when the Soviet Union was trying to conquer Afghanistan. Bin Laden was part of the resistance, one that was successful — not only in repelling the Soviet invasion but also in contributing to the communist superstate's collapse years later. "We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt," he later said.

The campaign taught bin Laden a lot. For one thing, superpowers fall because their economies crumble, not because they're beaten on the battlefield. For another, superpowers are so allergic to losing that they will bankrupt themselves trying to conquer a mass of rocks and sand. This was bin Laden's plan for the United States, too.

more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014950510_osamaecon04.html

[dkf]

1. Too much Debt will doom anyone.

[valerief]

2. PNAC won. nt

[patrice]

9. They'll probably have some lay-offs anyway & that's what our current struggles re debt limit + tax

cuts are about.

[The Doctor.]

10. No they didn't.

The oil companies did... in the short-term.

The PNAC was doomed from the start as it was lead by the idea that invading nations would be as easy as invading rival frat-houses.

No, they watched their dreams collapse. HW Bush watched the dynasty he tried to build fall. Cheney played the part of the Sith apprentice. The multinationals won.

[valerief]

13. PNAC is oil $$$$. That's its raison d'etre. That's what war is for.

[Skink]

3. The banks got there first.

[girl gone mad]

4. Still, when it comes to destroying American wealth..

he had nothing on Wall Street.

[patrice]

5. Oil economists were interviewed on Air America in 2002. We talked about them here at the DU.

They were saying that the Bush administration's line about how the oil was going to pay for the war was not true.

American media helped OBL mortally wound our economy.

[patrice]

7. On edit: 2002 or 2003

[lonestarnot]

6. Some in the U.S. have thrown in with him, but they have not yet been labeled as terrorists.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=591230

[patrice]

8. 1 google+

:applause:

[jwirr]

11. With the help of the rethugs who were trying to drown the government

in the bathtub. The wars just gave them an excuse to break the bank.

[eridani]

12. How fjucking stupid does anyone have to be to think that an Islamic caliphate is some sort

--of actual threat? If those Muslims who want one ever decide if it is to be a Sunni caliphate or a Shi'ite caliphate, get back to me.

[Karenina]

14. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[BobbyBoring]

15. That is funny!

They are like the republican party. Tea partiers= REAL REPUBLICANS, hence REAL AMERICANS. Establishment republicans = RINOS.

Are the Suni REAL MOSLEMS or is it the Shi'ites?

Only time will tell but praise allah, someone in America gets it:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: