Glenn Greenwald points out that the “war on terror” is being carried out illogically. The U.S. has now dropped bombs on six Muslim countries that have had nothing to do with 9/11. We are currently obsessed with how to attack another Muslim country (Iran) that had nothing to do with 9/11. At the same time, we constantly reassert that our friendship with Saudi Arabia, a country with documented ties to 9/11.
That’s definitely true, but does Greenwald actually want us to wage the war logically? There may yet come a reckoning with the Saudis. The danger in saying, “Well, what about Saudi Arabia?” is that we may someday actually attack Saudi Arabia.
Not to mention the ceaseless justification of fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The White House press secretary has been trotting out that tired justification constantly, but it appears that the last time an al-Qaeda fighter was killed in Afghanistan was almost a year ago, in April, 2011. Which makes sense, I guess, when you consider that there are only a handful of al-Qaeda left, according to Leon Panetta. And that 10 or so al-Qaeda is down from perhaps 100 a few years ago.
So glad we’re spending trillions on such an overwhelming threat.
I think we’ve learned our lesson on nationbuilding. Our ancestors had something else they did: it was known as the punitive raid. That approach is appearing to be much wiser now.