It's been nearly ten years since the 'September 11th' attacks on the 'World Trade Center', the Pentagon and the, as yet, unkown target in Washington D.C, and since that fateful day Osama Bin Laden has been running and hiding from american forces all over the far east. Well, American forces finally caught up with him this week, in a compound, in Abottabad, in Pakistan and rather than all that tedious mucking about with a trial that would undoubtably cost the American tax-payers an absolute fortune, like Saddam Hussain's, they decided that it would proberbly be better for all concerned if they just shot him in the head! Fair enough...... I suppose.
Seems to me though that America really doesn't learn from any of the conflicts that they managed to get themselves embroiled into during the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries, so how could their war on terror end any differently. Korea and Vietnam were both un-winnable conflicts, mostly due to the fact that the enemy's combatants weren't civil enough to wear a uniform declaring their hostile intent. Their use of civilians and children to blow shit up was also a contributing factor in why the U.S personnel on the ground, didn't know who the hell needed shooting, causing countless G.Is to question why they were even there.They were there because of the Cold War, they were there because J.Edgar Hoover and his buddies at the F.B.I had managed to get the whole of the American public absolutley paranoid about the spread of 'Communism'. The mere fact the governments of these supposedly 'Communist' states threatening to spread themselves over south east asia, were more dictatorial regiemes than they were communists states. Seems that every 15 seconds or so there some sort policing campaign, or liberation of a down troden society or out and out conflict and it always seems to have the U.S.A in the driving seat.
Korean War 1950-1953
Vietnam War 1963-1975
Operation Urgent Fury-Grenada 1983
Operation Just Cause-Panama 1989
Operaton Desert Storm-Iraq 1991
Operation Restore Hope-Somalia 1993
Operations in Europe-Bosnia 1990's
Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan 2001-present
Operation Iraqi Freedom-Iraq 2003-present.
Laberian Civil War 2003
The Second Gulf War 2003-2010
The Haitian Rebellion 2004
The Afganistan Conflict 2001-present
Lybian Civil War (operation Odessey Dawn) 2011-present
This is just the edited highlights of the conflicts that the U.S has been involved in since the end of World War 2, for the full, unabridged and staggeringly lengthy list of American Foriegn Policy go to :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
I have discussed before why the Americans feel the need to be constantly going around dictating how other governments should behave so I won't re-itterate it here, what I will say is that they don't like being given a bloody nose by anyone let alone a terrorist organisation, and all of their technological warfare advancements, that has burned through a mind melting amount of money in the last fifty years, didn't seem to help their forces on the ground. Policing campaigns are dangerous places to be and there are three of them going on right now. The remnants of the 2nd Iraq War, The Afganistan Occupation and the Lybian Civil War, all of which are involving a supposed multi-national taskforce, all of which show no signs of abaiting and all of which are costing a staggering amount of money to run. And yet, initially, all three of these campaigns seemed simple, so why has it taken so long to sort out the Iraqi and Afganistani situations when America has the largest, most advanced weapons arsenal on the face of planet earth?
This question, I would greatly appreciate someone answering for me because I have am at a loss quite frankly . Why, also, did it take 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden when the U.S also has the most advanced technological surveillience and intelligence systems the world has ever seen? Again I would appreciate an answer because it baffles me. Maybe it's a case of international resentment, from various states, against America and their foriegn policies? Possible and more than a little understandable, after all there is a financial incentive in everything the American government takes on. They do have a tendancey to do what is good for their country and Sod everyone else! Their refusal to sign the 'Kyoto Accord' for example.
Bush's concept of a blanket 'War on Terror' was at the very least, mis-guided and quite possibly farcicle, after all, how does anyone fight an enemy when they don't know, who he is, where he is and what he looks like. I hasten to add that it's only terrorists with America in their sights that are the targets for this campaign, after all, there don't seem to be many american service personnel in spain helping seek out members of the Bask Seperatist movement, or in Ireland searching for members of the Real I.R.A who have taken a step backwards by starting to blow stuff up again. No America only cares when America's financial interests are somehow impeached.
After Bin Laden's assasination, President Obama has re-assured the world that the 'War on Terror is not a War on Islam, it is a war on extremism not on the Muslim community. That's all very well but if America's foriegn policy continues to service just American global interests then it is highly likely that their war on terror will never end. There will always be a new group ready to take up the sword to fight the political boheimouth that the U.S.A has become. As long as there are countries and populations that are run over by American foriegn policy, then there will always be people ready to become the next Bin Laden, to fight the good fight regardless of how many innocents get caught in the crossfire. Nothing breeds terrorists like political indifference, when people feel maginalised by governments, ignored by politicians, stamped on by corperations and ripped off by all of the above, how else can they get political attention?
