War of Terror - 5 Years In

9/11 changed a lot of things and I don’t think much was for the better. It is one thing to defeat an armed force on a battlefield but “terrorists” are not sitting over the next ridge. The United States had an opportunity to learn some lessons from a very horrific attack. They could have concluded that the can’t just go in to any country they wish, even with the consent of that nation’s government, and not expect some people to be upset with that. Bill Maher lost his TV show by pointing out, and I agree with him, that Americans were used to bombing people all over the globe expecting that they could never be hit, and now then were hit themselves – and right in downtown USA.

Did Bush conclude that American foreign policy needed to take a step back? No, he concluded it needed to get even heavier. Did he conclude that the obnoxious flag waving and self-love that no other nation really does needed to be toned down? No, he concluded that it needed to get worse. Did he conclude that it was OK for some people to have values other than the ones Americans have? No, he concluded that everyone needed to have American values shoved right down their throat.  

The decision to invade Afghanistan was a weak one and invading Iraq as it was a “threat” to the US was simply a lie. I do admit I too thought there would be some weapons of mass destruction as Sadam bragged about them so I don’t see the venture as a failure because they were not there.

Was Iraq full of terrorists before 2003? Nope. But it is now. In fact Osama bin Laden released a tape just before the 2004 US election. Why? Because Bush is good for business, that’s why!

War and rhetoric are old companions, back to at least antiquity. But the American media started to brand people as cowards and traitors if they dared to speak out against the Iraq war before it began and during its first few months.

Stephen Colbert put it the best in regard to how “detainees” have been handled “If you love freedom….set it free”.

Bush and his cronies are always telling us that the terrorists “hate freedom” – ignoring for a moment that that makes no sense at all, Bush has done a pretty good job of pissing on freedom himself.