2004 Bin Laden strategy vs. USA: 'bleed until bankruptcy.’

[rmedia]

SOURCE:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/25/bin-laden-bleed/

In 2004 videotape, Bin Laden explained his strategy against U.S. — ‘bleed until bankruptcy.’»

Over on the Wonk Room, Matt Duss recalls this line from Osama bin Laden’s surprise late-October 2004 videotaped address:

And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the Mujahedin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan with Allah’s permission… And it all shows that the real loser is… you. It’s the American people and their economy.

The CIA judged that Bin Laden’s videotaped message was an effort by al Qaeda to deliver four more years for President Bush, thus helping them recruit a new generation of terrorists.

Hows Fannie and Mac, and Lehman ?

The "American Dream":




'Tent cities' of homeless on the rise across the US
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... he-US.html

'Tent Cities' Spring Up In The US
http://tinyurl.com/4zuq6t

US Economic Crisis: Tent Cities Spreading Across America
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=73491

‘Tent cities’ housing homeless increasing in the US
http://www.sindhtoday.net/world/22142.htm

Thank god i dont live in the US, i only like to sleep in tents when i go hiking

[Ibe]

I've always believed that the US economy is nearly invincible. No matter what insane numbers come out of Wall Street or Congress, its financially infallible. I might change this view, but I need to see more than the collapse of a few mortgage firms. 700 billion dollar bailout, that number has no meaning.

[Hekmatyar]

Yes this is what many people including me thought would happen, as early as 2003.
The economy is very important factor and fighting wars is no cheap bussiness

[walt]

This banking crisis all stems from the housing market, even if we weren't in Iraq/Afghanistan this same thing would have happened because of the lack of regulations. Your home country Sweden had a similar thing happen in 1992, what wars was Sweden fighting?

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/ ... index_html

[Hekmatyar]

This banking crisis all stems from the housing market, even if we weren't in Iraq/Afghanistan this same thing would have happened because of the lack of regulations. Your home country Sweden had a similar thing happen in 1992, what wars was Sweden fighting?

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/ ... index_html

yes and I said partly,


I think its quite simple logic, if a economic system is bleeding money (in this case fighting wars) . It will cause problem in the economic system.

I give one example how to too look at it and maybe a theory what connection the wars has had on this crisis:
US citizen has generaly been poorer the last years, all statistics point that way. More people need charity and food stamps to survive.
If the banks lend money to everyone without any security its a very temnting opportunity for people that are poor to live better. They see their chance of earning money for example to buy a house with steadily increasing houseprices. And there we have the start of the problem.
A part of this problem from the beginning is that many people are poor, and the increasing poor people is an effect of the wars.

This is perhaps to much speculating for you, but this economic collapse happens at the same time as the wars being fought, and I am convinced its not a coincidence.

Everything needs to be paid, I think you know that yourself Walt, nothing is for free, if you want a car you pay for it , you want a war , you pay for it. Its simple , the US doesn´t have this money and it will be a big problem when the countries in the world lose thier trust in US economy and this is what seems to be happening now.

[walt]

I think people don't understand the scale of the US economy, even the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan compared to the sheer size of the US economy are really not that big.

As I have posted before, compared to the amount of money the US was spending during the Cold War, even what we are spending now is much much less.

Also, the US economy still has low unemployment, low inflation, and is not contracting. This MAY change, but the USA has been through far worse economic times during the 20th century and came through just fine.

[Hekmatyar]

what I have heard is that the budgetdeficit has increased by 70 % the last seven years. This means that it will be more expensive for the US to borrow money from the rest of the world.

You say that the unemployment are low, but what I heard is that the depressing statistics on the higher unemployment was one of the reasons the stockmarket went down even though the money aid from government was approved.

That the wars doesn´t have any affect is not true. The cost of the Afghan and Iraqi war is almost at the same level as the Vietnam war, if not more.
The Vietnam war had significant effect on the US economy, it was one of the reasons US left Vietnam.

You just have to grasp what is going on now, there are more poor people in US then before, this number has increased the last years. Why ?

The crisis mentioned before is not at this scale, the only worse comparision we have is 30s crisis. But you cannot say that USA came out easy from that crisis, after that we had a world war, with many people killed.
At the time after the WW2 the US had no competitor on the market, the situation is not the same today.