EARL NASH, EDITORIAL: How the United States lost the War on Terror

EARL NASH, WTFG "War on Terra"   Correspondent      

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How the United States lost the War on Terror

Osama Bin Laden may be ready to borrow that famous Bush banner--"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !" 

A review of his "war" goals reveals that, as he defined what Bush termed the "War on Terror," the Islamic icon, working with a cell phone in a cave in Waziristan, defeated the United States.  He can now declare victory; we can now pull out.

His primary strategy was to provoke the United States to deploy the full might of its armed forces--a force that is capable of wreaking "Shock and Awe"--and chase "terrorists" around the globe, until the richest nation on earth went bankrupt. .. Today, the United States spends 36% of its total budget on military expenditures.  [see chart below.]

Today, the United States spends 36% of its total budget on military expenditures.  [see chart below.]

He speaks of his desire to bankrupt the U.S., saying:

"[It is] easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Queda, in order to make the generals race there and cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses ... This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat."

In his declaration of war in 1998, published in London, Osama Bin Laden gave al- Qaeda's reasons for war:

* First, he demanded that the U.S. military presence (air bases) on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia. Many Westerners might be surprised to learn that Islam's holiest sites are NOT in Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan; they are in Saudi Arabia, a close U. S. ally.

 

The Prophet's Mosque

Medina

This huge mosque stands over the site of the Prophet Muhammad's house and tomb and is the second holiest mosque in the world after al-Haram in Mecca.

 

The Ka'ba

Mecca

The Ka'ba is believed to have been built by Abraham and his son Ishmael. Enshrining a sacred stone, it is said to be first place on earth that was created. It is the directional focus of worldwide Muslim prayers.

 

Al-Masjid al-Haram (The Holy Mosque)

Mecca

The holiest mosque in the world, the Haram Mosque has been much expanded from its original 7th-century form. Today it can accommodate up to 820,000 worshipers in air-conditioned comfort.

* His second demand: Ending the U.S. sanctions on the Iraqi people, causing terrible suffering.

* Third, he demanded that the U.S. cease its support for Israel's dispossession of the Palestinians.

Bin Laden believed that, as a result of these three reasons, the United States had essentially declared war on Islam:

 "All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his Messenger and Muslims."

He began his fatwa quoting the Koran:

"But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war."

"To Osama, we started the war. Muslims, the ulema, must fight because America, with her "brutal crusade occupation of the (Arabian) Peninsula" and support for "the Jews' petty state" and "occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there" was waging war upon the Islamic world.

Terrorism, the direct killing of civilians for political ends, is al-Qaeda's unconventional tactic, but its war aims are quite conventional.

Al-Qaeda is fighting a religious war against apostates and pagans in their midst, a civil war against collaborators of the Crusaders and an anti-colonial war to drive us out of the Dar al-Islam. On Sept. 11, they were over here -- because we are over there.

Nothing justifies the massacre of Sept. 11. But these are the political goals behind the 9/11 attack, and this is why Islamists fare well in elections in the Middle East. Tens of millions of Muslims, who may despise terrorism, identify with the causes for which Osama declared war -- liberation of Muslim peoples from pro-American autocrats and Israeli occupiers."

[Patrick Buchanan, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24373.htm]

Total Outlays (Federal Funds): $2,650 billion
MILITARY: 54% and $1,449 billion
NON-MILITARY: 46% and $1,210 billion

 

The United States spent more of its "treasure" on the military than on the rest of the country--54% to 46%

 

Imagine how the funds spent on the "War on Terror" were redirected to health care, education, poverty, tax cuts, infrastructure repair, development of new sources of energy, and [you fill in the blank].

The US Intelligence services estimates that there are approximately 300 active al-Queda operatives in Afghanistan.  Yet those 300  mujahidin only had to "raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaeda, in order to make the generals race there and cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses ..."

Bin Laden succeeded in causing the United States to spend $1,449 billion on the War on Terror; pause and contemplate the enormity of that number:

$1,449 billion.

One thousand, four hundred, and forty-nine...

                                            BILLION dollars !

 When President Obama committed 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, it left him just 20,000 troops in his war fuel tank.  We are running out of "blood" (soldiers) and "treasure" ($1,449 billion a year) and we are printing money to cover our national debt. (The Pentagon estimated that for each of the 30,000 troops it would cost $1 MILLION.  Thirty thousand MILLION spend to deploy troops to eradicate 300-1,000 al-Qaeda operatives.

We rely on China to buy U S Treasury notes in auctions every week, or two, to get the funds to keep the country alive.  If China does not show up for the auction, say, next week, the United States will be effectively bankrupt.

 "War on Terror" 

 Osama Bin Laden 

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"?

 

  ^ "Bin Laden: Al Qaeda motivated to strike U.S. again". CNN. 2004-10-30. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/29/binladen.tape/index.html. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 

  ^ ^{a b} "Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech". Al-Jazeera. 2004-11-01. http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html. Retrieved 2008-11-16.