This Counterpuch article by Paul Craig Robers serves as a stark antidote to willful blindness in re the solipsistic question: Why do They Hate Us So? It's the policy, fools; it's the policy tools.
A must read.
Does anyone remember the “cakewalk war” that would last six weeks, cost $50-$60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues?
Does anyone remember that White House economist Lawrence Lindsey was fired by Dubya because Lindsey estimated that the Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion?
Lindsey was fired for over-estimating the cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And the US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.
Does anyone remember that just prior to the US invasion of Iraq, the US government declared victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan?
Does anyone remember that the reason Dubya gave for invading Iraq was Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, weapons that the US government knew did not exist?
Are Americans aware that the same neoconservarives who made these fantastic mistakes, or told these fabulous lies, are still in control of the government in Washington?
The “war on terror” is now in its tenth year. What is it really all about?
The bottom line answer is that the “war on terror” is about creating real terrorists. The US government desperately needs real terrorists in order to justify its expansion of its wars against Muslim countries and to keep the American people sufficiently fearful that they continue to accept the police state that provides “security from terrorists,” but not from the government that has discarded civil liberties.
I keep returning to these facts:
(1) Atlantic Ocean to the East of us
(2) Pacific Ocean to the West of us
(3) Canada to the North of us
(4) A "wall" being built across the border to the South of us
(5) Our enemies have no army, no air force, no navy
And yet, what was formerly known as the GWOT (Global War On Terror) goes on and on, although now apparently it's fashionable to call it the long war. And it can't be won, but we'll have to fight it forever.
Does anyone remember why, any more?
Does anyone even ask?
