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The
New Cold War
October
15, 2001
By Ken Alford
Donald Rumsfeld calls it the "new Cold War." G.W. Bush
says it may take decades to defeat it. Both political parties
are ready to spend whatever it takes to fight the scourge.
The Defense contractors are having wet dreams just thinking
about it. What is it?
At the moment, it is a show of force by the strongest nation
on earth. Terrorists led by Osama Bin Laden cannot burrow
themselves deep enough to escape the wrath of the mighty America.
Muslims and Christians are drawing lines in the sand. Fear
dominates the agenda of both sides in the conflict. The Afghanis
fear getting a 5000 lb. bomb dropped on their heads and the
Americans fear getting an Anthrax spore up their noses. But
what is it really about?
Since the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed
like a punctured balloon, the Military Industrial Complex
has been in withdrawal. For a time, they tried to make China
the enemy, but they were too capitalistically friendly to
pursue. Then we were told that North Korea was making missiles
that could reach America's shores. There was momentary credibility
until people realized that North Korea was just another third
world country. Then they lapsed into a debate about the necessity
of a missile defense shield. It was politics as usual until
September 11th.
That was the salvation of the Defense contractors. On that
date, terrorist extremists of the Islam religion, managed
to hijack several planes and blow up the brains of the financial
and military establishments of the greatest nation on earth
- the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Finally, we had
the new enemy we had been searching for since the Cold War
ended.
It didn't matter that we were using the most advanced technology
and the most massive amount of military power in the world
to look for one skinny butt terrorist. We had an enemy at
last. When it was revealed that Anthrax had been discovered
in Florida and one person had died from it, the powers that
be knew it would be easy. It had to have been planted by the
terrorists. The people were fearful for their lives and Congress
was going along simply so they could say they supported the
"war" in the next election cycle. The planets were in alignment.
Then G.W. Bush tells the American people that this "war"
will take years to finish and that we must have patience.
It must be very, very serious because Congress agreed with
his every point. How could the American people not think it
was "war" of their lifetime? After all, 6,000 Americans were
dead. It didn't matter that they died because of a porous
immigration policy and a total lack of intelligence from our
Defense establishment. It didn't matter that our elected leaders
took the month of August off for a political vacation while
a few "evil" people planned their act of infamous glory.
The plot was written. Things would be as they were for the
previous 50 years. We would spend huge amounts for Defense
and we would all be safe from the evil terrorists of the world.
We could return to deficit spending so the big banks and creditors
of the world could get their annual large interest payments
from the American people. The people would surrender any ideas
they may have had about prescription drugs for the elderly
or healthcare and early education for millions of children.
They would even surrender their freedoms and civil rights.
After all, we have to find and defeat the 2nd strongest person
in the world, Osama Bin Laden.
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