Cui Bono?

From the blog "Brilliant at Breakfast?":


"Such is the legacy of Osama Bin Laden: His enemy nation is on its knees, wracked by debt and declining standards of living and corporate greed and inequality. A nation whose citizens jump at the mere mention of Al Qaeda to the point that we have become willing to give up all of our privacy just to be able to believe, however falsely, that it won't happen again. A nation in which a Congressman can call McCarthyesque hearings demanding that people who are members of the religion Bin Laden professed to practice to somehow "prove" their loyalty to this country. A nation in which a President whose name is associated with Islam is hounded about what constitutes a valid birth certificate by people with no knowledge of legal documentation.

The demonstration in the street show that while George W. Bush wasn't "all that concerned" with Osama Bin Laden, Americans clearly were. We may be uncomfortable with the precedent of assassination (which may at some point in the future be used indiscriminately by another George Bush trying to prove his manhood to his father), and this does not mean the end of Al Qaeda or even of terrorism coming from the Middle East (as opposed to the terrorism brewing in our own heartland). But if we do not take time out from the celebrations and look at what we have allowed Osama Bin Laden to do to our country, not a decade ago, but in the decade since, then we deserve to continue our slow slog into oblivion."




Precisely. As we natter on about Trump's hair and how mean the lefty media is, the real war is long since over. Osama made us wicked, and mean, and heartless. He made us waste blood and treasure chasing phantoms. You could argue he showed us for what we are. Or you could argue he changed us. I think a third thing: he made us show our wickedness plain- revealing the dark obscene heart of the American Dream. For all the flag waving and all the dumbshows, this country was founded by rich men who didn't feel like they should have to give their money away in taxes. 'Twas ever thus. Maybe the elite really are just like the founders- rich, and intending to stay that way.

We're fucked. Everything is going to get worse, and worse, and exponentially worse. I hope the wealthy enjoy it behind the walls of their gated communities, because we're dying out here.