Fifteen Years After 9/11, Neverending War

[rug]

Alex Emmons
Sep. 10 2016, 10:10 p.m.

IN THE DAYS after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when Congress voted to authorize military force against the people who “planned, authorized, committed, or aided” the hijackings, few Americans could have imagined the resulting manhunt would span from West Africa all the way to the Philippines, and would outlast two two-term presidents.

Today, U.S. military engagement in the Middle East looks increasingly permanent. Despite the White House having formally ended the wars Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of U.S. troops and contractors remain in both countries. The U.S. is dropping bombs on Iraq and Syria faster than it can make them, and according to the Pentagon, its bombing campaign in Libya has “no end point at this particular moment.” The U.S. is also helping Saudi Arabia wage war in Yemen, in addition to conducting occasional airstrikes in Yemen and Somalia.

Fifteen years after the September 11 attacks, it looks like the War on Terror is still in its opening act.

The drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan only revealed how little war has achieved and how much damage it has inflicted. In Afghanistan, the Taliban now holds more territory than it has at any point since 2001. One poll from 2016 found that more than 90 percent of young people in Iraq now consider the United States an “enemy” of their country.

https://theintercept.com/2016/09/10/fifteen-years-after-911-neverending-war/

[nolabels]

1. One big reason the US exceeds all reasonable exspectations in military preponderance is..........

the corporations that build the crap with our tax dollars have cornered the market. No other country makes (or really wants) the crap like the US.

So when one of the legs is broken prop up the stool with advertising and political sponsorship, it's sure to keep the market intact

[MoonRiver]

2. Exactly as planned.