“What a beautiful world I live in,� Osama bin-Landen must say sometimes. “I was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and yet a clueless president lied and used fear-mongering to lead that country into a war with the wrong country. He’s bought me five years. And if his friend gets to succeed him, I hear they will stay in Iraq for another 100 years. What a beautiful world.�
[Black Star News Editorial]
Had the United States deployed in Afghanistan and in Pakistan the kind of resources –military, financial, diplomatic and intelligence services– that’s been deployed in Iraq over the past five years ago, would Osama bin-Laden still be out there and would al-Qaeda still be thriving?
Wasn’t it bin-Laden who was supposed to have started all this? The Iraq war has been a colossal mistake; a huge diversion.
The Bush Administration did al-Qaeda and Osama bin-Laden a huge favor with this diversionary war. Bin-Laden did not have to bear full might of the United States armed forces and intelligence services; instead, the U.S. has been spending $12 billion per week in the Iraq war. The war has claimed the lives of 4,000 U.S. soldiers and untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, in the past five years.
Somewhere out there, Osama is watching all this in amazement. He must shake his head and perhaps even chuckle now and then.
“What a beautiful world I live in,” Osama bin-Landen might even say sometimes. “I was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and yet a clueless president lied and used fear-mongering to lead that country into war with the wrong country. He’s bought me five years. And if his friend gets to succeed him, I hear they’re talking about staying in Iraq for another 100 years. What a beautiful world.”
Indeed.
