May 22, 2007
The Cost of the Iraq War
A British diplomat estimated that Al Qaeda spent $500,000 on the 9/11 attacks, while the United States lost more than $500 billion—a point that Osama Bin Laden underscored in a highly publicized 2004 videotape. Bin Laden boasted that “the Muhahadeen bled Russia for ten years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat… So we are continuing this policy of bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.”
article By Robert Hormats
from Conscientious
[photo not from above]
~Yes I know Camp Delta was created before the invasion of Iraq, (during the invasion of Afghanistan? 9/12/01?) and imprisons men (and women?) from many countries with few "enemy combatants" from Iraq.
This photo is here to underscore the unique role the US Military plays in the how America defends itself against terrorism. Instead of relying on Interpol-like agencies to work in close conjunction with other nations, we've chosen to promote as our supposedly primary means of security--armies, bombers, missile shields and the kidnapping and "detention" of individuals who we've declared are beyond the laws of all nations.
Instead of arrests and highly publicized criminal proceedings against alleged terrorists, we've chosen military tribunals as more or less afterthoughts to budget-busting military invasions and attempted occupations of sovereign nations which our leaders have identified as terrorist threats and sources of evil.
Most every nation on earth is required to respond to threats of terrorism: America is unique in that it has permitted its military along with various secret agencies to operate a number of 'camps' to hold and 'question' who knows how many people these same organizations have identified as enemy nonentities.