Lessons of 9/11: Sins of the Father

Many recollections of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 are just that, memories of a day and the events that followed, including Operation Infinite Justice in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL), an unfortunately titled crusade quickly renamed Operation Iraqi Freedom.  It became a way to settle unfinished business with Iraq's Saddam Hussein, who did have one Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD):  cheap oil ready to unleash after a decade of embargo and food-for-oil after the Persian Gulf War's Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm.  In 1990, the President George H. W. Bush (#41) Administration told diplomat April Glassby to relay a message to Saddam Husseini; his dispute with Kuwait was not a U.S. concern.  This became Saddam's excuse to invade Kuwait, which gave Bush an excuse to get Saudi Arabia to accept American troops on its soil; movie director Spike Lee had a hard enough time getting non-Moslem Americans on Arabian territory to make MALCOLM X, but this would trigger Osama bin Laden's wrath.  So far, Osama's plan worked:  force America to spend itself into oblivion just as the Soviet Union did in the late 80's, while inflating oil prices by having Christian crusaders and Islamic jihadists fight over oil fields and pipelines.  There are many lessons to be learned about 9/11:  visit www.9-11commission.gov for the valid-if-flawed Commission Report, and read then-Senator Bob Graham's (FL-D) book INTELLIGENCE MATTERS.  Watch movies like FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR and maybe RAMBO III as a reminder of what can happen when an unwanted superpower sends troops to a guerrilla's playground.  The movie W. is sympathetic, but brutal in its comparisons between the two wars on Iraq by different Bush presidencies.  Television shows like THE PATH TO 9/11 and W.'s remembrances of 9/11 are forgettable except to track right-wing delusions.  Young Winston Churchill switched the British Navy from coal to oil; today's soldiers are switching from one-use batteries to rechargeables with solar panels.  Also, look for Anthony Cordesman's post-9/11 essay THE BUFFY PARADIGM which analogizes terrorists to various supernatural villains.

America's Punic War

The three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage lasted from 246 to 146 B.C.E., named for the Phoenician sea-going culture in contrast to the Latin land-bound one.  Among the lesser-known consequences is that during each war, especially the famous Second Punic War from 218 to 201 B.C.E. that included the strategies of Hannibal of Carthage and Scipio Africanus of Rome, citizen-soldiers left their farms to fight for their Republic   only to find them worthless upon their return, forcing the sale of family farms to large latifundias or losing domestic production to cheap imports.  Does this sound familiar?  American soldiers are returning to the civilian workplace, either with ten years of service only to be told they are over-qualified for the McJobs they need, or with medic skills but lacking certification or coursework to become a Registered Nurse (R.N.) and without the living expenses stipend to use their G. I. Bill for school.

The unnecessary wars of Afghanistan and Iraq, avoidable if an elected President had allowed Osama bin Laden to be tried in the World Court or equivalent, have created what TIME magazine called the Decade of Hell and a lost generation.  At least the Romans won land and slaves; we fought both to prevent Saddam Hussein from flooding the market with cheap post-embargo oil and to control the Caspian Sea pipeline.  It's like watching the old DALLAS soap opera story arch when gasoline was cheap, so while Patrick Duffy's Bobby Ewing was lobbying for a legal price floor on oil, Larry Hagman's J.R. Ewing was funding mercenaries to stir up Middle East mayhem to boost the oil market.  At least J.R. suffered for his crimes; how have the Bushes or the Cheneys or the Rumsfelds been punished, with book deals and speaking tours? Let's send them free vacation packages to Germany and see what happens; they know about war criminals.

Try this for stimulus; every U.S. service member who saw duty in Iraq or Afghanistan since 9/11 gets a $250/week tax-free stipend as a $13,000 gift from America in accordance with IRS laws, while keeping existing benefits.  Combine this with a $1/year rise in the minimum wage to reach its $10 1968-equivalent then its $15 productivity-equivalent and we can counter the current top-heavy inflation of CEO income and real estate bubbles.  Finally make the following free and Sean Hannity's nightmare will become true:  education, healthcare, and mass transit.  Bring back 1986 Reagan-style amnesty to 12M+ undocumented workers so they can unionize and erase its underground economy while exposing convicted felons for deportation.  Legalize naturally occurring drugs as GRAS (generally regarded as safe) as if they were tobacco or alcohol and the drug war stops its death count.  It's like Canadian Leonard Cohen sings, ""Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."