Is America Living Under The Shadow Of Osama Bin Laden?

He had those 19 mostly Saudi hijackers, a scattering of supporters elsewhere in the world, and the “training camps” in Afghanistan, but his was a ragged and understaffed movement.바카라 웹사이트 And keep in mind that his sworn enemy was the country that then prided itself on being the last superpower, the final winner of the imperial sweepstakes that had gone on for five centuries until, in 1991, the Soviet Union imploded.

The question was: With such limited resources, what kind of self-destructive behavior could he goad a triumphalist Washington into? The key would be what might be called apocalyptic humiliation.

Looking back, 16 years later, it라이브 바카라 extraordinary how September 11, 2001, would set the pattern for everything that followed. Each further goading act, from Afghanistan to Libya, San Bernardino to Orlando, Iraq to Niger, each further humiliation would trigger yet more of the same behavior in Washington. After all, so many people and institutions -- above all, the U.S. military and the rest of the national security state -- came to have a vested interest in Osama bin Laden라이브 바카라 version of our world.

Apocalyptic Humiliation

Grim as the 9/11 attacks were, with nearly바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트dead civilians, they would be but the start of bin Laden라이브 바카라 “success,” which has, in truth, never ended. The phrase of that moment -- that 9/11 had “changed everything” -- proved far more devastatingly accurate than we Americans imagined at the time.바카라 웹사이트 Among other things, it transformed the country in essential ways.

After all, Osama bin Laden managed to involve the United States in 16 years of fruitless wars, most now바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트with no end in sight, which would only encourage the creation and spread of terror groups, the disintegration of order across significant parts of the planet, and the바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트of whole populations in staggering바카라 웹사이트.바카라 웹사이트 At the same time, he helped turn twenty-first-century Washington into a war machine of the first order that ate the rest of the government for lunch.바카라 웹사이트 He gave the national security state the means -- the excuse, if you will -- to rise to a kind of power, prominence, and바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트that might otherwise have been inconceivable.바카라 웹사이트 In the process -- undoubtedly fulfilling his wildest dreams -- he helped speed up the decline of the very country that, since the Cold War ended, had been plugging itself as the greatest ever.

In other words, he may truly be the (malign) genius of our age. He created a terrorist version of call and response that still rules Donald Trump's Washington in which the바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트of America라이브 바카라바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트on an increasingly바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트now reign supreme. In other words, The Donald, Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster were Osama bin Laden라이브 바카라 grim gift to the rest of us. Thanks to him,바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트of taxpayer dollars would go down the tubes in remarkably pointless wars and바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트abroad that now threaten to feed on each other to something like the end of (American) time.

Of course, he had a little luck in the process.바카라 웹사이트 As a start, no one, not even the 9/11 plotters themselves, could have imagined that those towers in Manhattan would collapse before the already omnipresent cameras of the age in a way that would create such classically apocalyptic imagery.바카라 웹사이트 As scholar Paul Boyer바카라 웹사이트, in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Americans never stopped dreaming of a nuclear attack on this country.바카라 웹사이트 Our pop culture was filled with such imagery, such nightmares.바카라 웹사이트 On that September day, many Americans suddenly felt as if something like it had finally happened.바카라 웹사이트 It wasn’t happenstance that,바카라 웹사이트, the area of downtown Manhattan where the shards of those towers lay would be dubbed “Ground Zero,” a term previously reserved for the spot where a nuclear explosion had taken place, or that Tom Brokaw, anchoring NBC라이브 바카라 non-stop news coverage, would claim that it was “like a nuclear winter in lower Manhattan.”

The sense of being sneak-attacked on an apocalyptic scale -- hence the "new Pearl Harbor" and "Day of Infamy"바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트-- proved overwhelming as the scenes of those towers falling in a near mushroom cloud of smoke and ash were endlessly replayed.바카라 웹사이트 Of course, no such apocalyptic attack had occurred.바카라 웹사이트 The weapons at hand weren’t even bombs or missiles, but our own airplanes filled with passengers.바카라 웹사이트 And yes, it was a horror, but not the horror Americans generally took it for.바카라 웹사이트 And yet, 16 years later, it라이브 바카라 still impossible to put 9/11 in any kind of reasonable context or perspective in this country, even after we’ve helped to바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트major cities across the Middle East -- most recently the Syrian city of바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트-- and so aided in creating landscapes far more apocalyptic looking than 9/11 ever was.

As I바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트long ago, 9/11 “was바카라 웹사이트not바카라 웹사이트a nuclear attack.바카라 웹사이트 It was바카라 웹사이트not바카라 웹사이트apocalyptic.바카라 웹사이트 The cloud of smoke where the towers stood was바카라 웹사이트no바카라 웹사이트mushroom cloud.바카라 웹사이트 It was바카라 웹사이트not바카라 웹사이트potentially civilization ending.바카라 웹사이트 It did바카라 웹사이트not바카라 웹사이트endanger the existence of our country -- or even of New York City.바카라 웹사이트 Spectacular as it looked and staggering as the casualty figures were, the operation was hardly more technologically advanced than the바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트on a single tower of the World Trade Center in 1993 by Islamists using a rented Ryder truck packed with explosives.”

On the other hand, imagine where we’d be if Osama bin Laden had had just a little바카라 웹사이트more바카라 웹사이트luck that day; imagine if the fourth hijacked plane, the one that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, had actually reached its target in Washington and wiped out, say, the Capitol or the White House.

Bin Laden certainly chose his symbols of American power well -- financial (the World Trade Center), military (the Pentagon), and political (some target in Washington) -- in order to make the government and people of the self-proclaimed most exceptional nation on Earth feel the deepest possible sense of humiliation.

Short of wiping out the White House, bin Laden could hardly have hit a more American nerve or created a stronger sense that the country which felt it had everything was now left with nothing at all.

That it wasn’t true -- not faintly -- didn’t matter. And add in one more bit of bin Laden good luck. The administration in the White House at that moment had its own바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트of how our world should work.바카라 웹사이트 As they emerged from the shock of those attacks, which바카라 웹사이트Vice President Dick Cheney into a Cold-War-era underground nuclear bunker and President George W. Bush onto Air Force One -- he was바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트a children라이브 바카라 book,바카라 웹사이트My Pet Goat, to school kids in Florida as the attacks occurred -- and in flight바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트Washington to Barksdale Air Base in Louisiana, they began to dream of their global moment.바카라 웹사이트 Like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the partially destroyed Pentagon, they instantly started바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트about taking out Iraq라이브 바카라 autocratic ruler Saddam Hussein and launching a project to create a Middle East and then a planet over which the United States alone would have dominion forever and ever.

As befitted those Pearl Harbor headlines, on the night of September 11th, the president was바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트of "the war against terrorism.” Within a day, he had called it “the first war of the twenty-first century” and soon, because al-Qaeda was such a pathetically inadequate target, had added, “Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there."

It couldn’t have been stranger.바카라 웹사이트 The United States was “at war,” but not with a great power or even one of the regional “rogue states” that had been the focus of American military thinking in the 1990s.바카라 웹사이트 We were at war with a phenomenon -- “terrorism” -- on a global scale. As Rumsfeld would바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트only five days after 9/11, the new war on terror would be “a large multi-headed effort that probably spans 60 countries, including the United States." In the바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트of the moment, they were going to “drain the swamp” globally.

Even setting aside that terrorism then had no real armies, no real territory, essentially nothing, this couldn’t have been more wildly out of proportion to what had actually happened or to the outfit that had caused it to happen.바카라 웹사이트 But anyone who suggested as much (or something as simple and unimpressive as a “police action” against bin Laden and crew) was promptly laughed out of the room or abused into silence.바카라 웹사이트 And so a call-and-response pattern that fit bin Laden라이브 바카라 wildest dreams would be established in which, whatever바카라 웹사이트they바카라 웹사이트did, the United States would always respond by militarily upping the ante.

In this way, Washington promptly found itself plunged into a Global War on Terror, or GWOT, that was essentially a figment of its own imagination.바카라 웹사이트 The Bush administration, not Osama bin Laden, then proceeded to turn it into a reality, starting with the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.바카라 웹사이트 Meanwhile, from the passage of the Patriot Act to the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, a newly바카라 웹사이트Washington would be바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트on a previously unheard of scale.

In other words, we were already entering Osama bin Laden라이브 바카라 America.

The War Lovers

In this way, long before Donald Trump and Rex Tillerson began downsizing the State Department, George W. Bush and his top officials (who, except for Colin Powell, had바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트to war) committed themselves to the U.S. military as the option of choice for what had previously been called “foreign policy.”바카라 웹사이트 Fortunately for bin Laden, they would prove to be the바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트when it came to that military.바카라 웹사이트 They had little doubt that they possessed a force beyond compare with the kind of power and technological resources guaranteed to sweep away everything before it.바카라 웹사이트 That military was, as the president바카라 웹사이트, “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.” What, then, could possibly stop it from spearheading the establishment of a바카라 웹사이트Pax Americana바카라 웹사이트in the Greater Middle East and elsewhere that would leave the Roman and British empires in the shade?바카라 웹사이트 (As it happened, they had absorbed nothing of the twentieth century history of insurrection, rebellion, and resistance in the former colonial world.바카라 웹사이트 If they had, none of what followed would have surprised them in the least.)바카라 웹사이트

And so the wars would spread, states would begin바카라 웹사이트, terror movements would multiply, and each little shiver of fear, each set of American deaths, whether by such movements or “lone wolves” in the U.S. and Europe, would call up just one response: more of the same.바카라 웹사이트

Think of this as Osama bin Laden라이브 바카라 dream world, which we would create for him and his fellow jihadists.바카라 웹사이트

I’ve been writing about this at바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트year after year for a decade and a half now and nothing ever changes.바카라 웹사이트 Not really.바카라 웹사이트 It라이브 바카라 all so sadly predictable as, years after bin Laden was consigned to his watery grave, Washington continues to essentially do his bidding in a remarkably brainless fashion.

Think of it as a kind of feedback loop in which the interests of a domestic security and surveillance state, built to monumental proportions on a relatively minor fear (of terrorism), and a military eternally funded to the heavens on a remarkably바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트for its never-ending war on terror ensure that nothing ever truly changes. In twenty-first-century Washington, failure is the new success and repetition is the rule of the day, week, month, and year.

Take, for example, the recent events in Niger. Consider the pattern of call-and-response there.바카라 웹사이트 Almost no Americans (and it turned out,바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트senators) even knew that the U.S. had something like바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트troops deployed permanently to that West African country and two drone bases there (though바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트was바카라 웹사이트). Then, on October 4th, the first reports of the deaths of four American soldiers and the wounding of two others in a Green Beret unit on a “routine training mission” in the바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트Niger-Mali border area came out. The ambush, it seemed, had been set by an ISIS affiliate.

It was, in fact, such an obscure and distant event that, for almost two weeks, there was little reaction in Congress or media uproar of any sort.바카라 웹사이트 That ended, however, when President Trump, in response to questions about those dead soldiers,바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트Barack Obama and George W. Bush for not calling the parents of the American fallen (they had) and then got into a바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트with the widow of one of the Niger dead (as well as a Democratic congresswoman) over his condolence call to her. The head of the Joint Chiefs was soon forced to hold a바카라 웹사이트; former four-star Marine General and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, whose son had died in Afghanistan, felt called upon to go to the mat for his boss,바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트that congresswoman, and essentially claim that the military was now an바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트in this country. This certainly reflected the new highly militarized sense of power and worth that lay at the heart of bin Laden라이브 바카라 Washington.바카라 웹사이트

It was only then that the event in distant Niger became another terrorist humiliation of the first order.바카라 웹사이트 Senators were suddenly outraged.바카라 웹사이트 Senator John McCain (one of the more warlike members of that body, famous in 2007 for jokingly바카라 웹사이트, to the tune of an old Beach Boys song, “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”) threatened to subpoena the administration for more Niger information.바카라 웹사이트 Meanwhile his friend Senator Lindsey Graham, another war hawk of the first order,바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트a classic warning of this era: “We don’t want the next 9/11 to come from Niger!”

And suddenly U.S. Africa Command was바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트its desire for more money from Congress; the military was moving to바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트its Reaper drones in Niger with Hellfire missiles for future counterterrorism operations; and Secretary of Defense Mattis was assuring senators privately that the military would “” its “counterterrorism focus” in Africa.바카라 웹사이트 The military began to prepare to deploy Hellfire Missile-armed Reaper drones to Niger.바카라 웹사이트 “The war is morphing,” Graham insisted. “You’re going to see more actions in Africa, not less; you’re going to see more aggression by the United States toward our enemies, not less; you’re going to have decisions being made not in the White House but out in the field.”

Rumors were soon floating around that, as the바카라 웹사이트Washington Post바카라 웹사이트, the administration might “loosen restrictions on the U.S. military's ability to use lethal force in Niger” (as it already had done in the Trump era in places like Syria and Yemen).바카라 웹사이트 And so it expectably went, as events in Niger proceeded from utter obscurity to the near-apocalyptic, while -- despite the strangeness of the Trumpian moment -- the responses came in exactly as anyone reviewing the last 16 years might have imagined they would.

All of this will predictably make things in central Africa바카라 웹사이트, not better,바카라 웹사이트... well, more than a decade and a half after 9/11, you know just as well as I do where it라이브 바카라 leading.바카라 웹사이트 And there are remarkably few brakes on the situation, especially with three generals of our losing wars ruling the roost in Washington and Donald Trump now lashed to the mast of his chief of staff.바카라 웹사이트

Welcome to Osama bin Laden라이브 바카라 America.

This article first appeared on

Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트and the author of바카라 웹사이트The United States of Fear바카라 웹사이트as well as a history of the Cold War,바카라 웹사이트. He is a fellow of the바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트and runs바카라 웹사이트. His latest book is바카라 웹사이트.