America lost more than the World Trade Center and its inhabitants on September 11, 2001. When the names of people who lost their lives at ground zero are read, the U.S. Economy should be included.
One of the things lacking in our discourse about 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, and al-Qaida is the perspective of the enemy. Their goal was larger than killing 3,000 people. Their goal was to destroy our economy, our government, our standing in the world. They chose the Twin Towers because they were known as the World Trade Center. It was an attack on America’s power in the world of finance.
In Bin Laden’s own words, “Al Qaeda’s supporters are “aware of the cracks in the Western financial system as they are aware of the lines in their own hands.” Bin Laden was sophisticated when it came to financial markets, no doubt a function of his own extreme wealth, He often claimed that the mujahdin were responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. The theory was that the Soviet Union was spending so much of its wealth on a war in Afghanistan that they could not react in any meaningful way to falling oil prices and grain shortages. (Sound familiar?)
According to a story in the Atlantic, “After declaring war on America, bin Laden compared the U.S. to the Soviet Union on multiple occasions, arguing that al-Qaeda would undermine America in the same way the mujahidin undermined the Soviet economy. His strategy of economic warfare went through several iterations over time, as al-Qaeda responded to external events, seized upon opportunities provided to it, and incorporated lessons learned by the group over time.”
The story goes on to say, “In another typical manifesto, Osama bin Laden and his deputy wrote that “it is very important to concentrate on hitting the U.S. economy through all possible means.” In 2007, bin Laden released a video on which he taunted the U.S. for having too much mortgage debt.
As early as 2003, the Department of Homeland Security warned that Al Qaeda was interested in infiltrating American financial institutions, and that Al Qaeda operatives possibly had already obtained jobs at American brokerage houses and banks. Said DHS spokesman David Wray: “There is new intelligence that indicates specific interest [on the part of Al Qaeda] in financial services and indirect indication…that led us to believe that threats could come from within as well as without.”
After the attack on the World Trade Center, America had two choices: treat the perpetrators as criminals, track them down, and put them on trial; or go to war with a nation that had absolutely nothing to do with Bin Laden, and didn’t even have weapons of mass destruction. George W. Bush chose war in the wrong nation, and Obama extended war into Afghanistan—the graveyard of the Soviet Union. We reacted EXACTLY the way that bin Laden wanted us to react. We reacted in the way that would cause the most economic damage.
War is costing American lives and our Treasury is bankrupt. Bin Laden may be dead, but he won.
Homework
Global Economic Warfare
Atlantic Story
Unrestricted Warfare
One of the things lacking in our discourse about 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, and al-Qaida is the perspective of the enemy. Their goal was larger than killing 3,000 people. Their goal was to destroy our economy, our government, our standing in the world. They chose the Twin Towers because they were known as the World Trade Center. It was an attack on America’s power in the world of finance.
In Bin Laden’s own words, “Al Qaeda’s supporters are “aware of the cracks in the Western financial system as they are aware of the lines in their own hands.” Bin Laden was sophisticated when it came to financial markets, no doubt a function of his own extreme wealth, He often claimed that the mujahdin were responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. The theory was that the Soviet Union was spending so much of its wealth on a war in Afghanistan that they could not react in any meaningful way to falling oil prices and grain shortages. (Sound familiar?)
According to a story in the Atlantic, “After declaring war on America, bin Laden compared the U.S. to the Soviet Union on multiple occasions, arguing that al-Qaeda would undermine America in the same way the mujahidin undermined the Soviet economy. His strategy of economic warfare went through several iterations over time, as al-Qaeda responded to external events, seized upon opportunities provided to it, and incorporated lessons learned by the group over time.”
The story goes on to say, “In another typical manifesto, Osama bin Laden and his deputy wrote that “it is very important to concentrate on hitting the U.S. economy through all possible means.” In 2007, bin Laden released a video on which he taunted the U.S. for having too much mortgage debt.
As early as 2003, the Department of Homeland Security warned that Al Qaeda was interested in infiltrating American financial institutions, and that Al Qaeda operatives possibly had already obtained jobs at American brokerage houses and banks. Said DHS spokesman David Wray: “There is new intelligence that indicates specific interest [on the part of Al Qaeda] in financial services and indirect indication…that led us to believe that threats could come from within as well as without.”
After the attack on the World Trade Center, America had two choices: treat the perpetrators as criminals, track them down, and put them on trial; or go to war with a nation that had absolutely nothing to do with Bin Laden, and didn’t even have weapons of mass destruction. George W. Bush chose war in the wrong nation, and Obama extended war into Afghanistan—the graveyard of the Soviet Union. We reacted EXACTLY the way that bin Laden wanted us to react. We reacted in the way that would cause the most economic damage.
War is costing American lives and our Treasury is bankrupt. Bin Laden may be dead, but he won.
Homework
Global Economic Warfare
Atlantic Story
Unrestricted Warfare
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