Now that I have your attention...
I'm posting an excerpt from the 2004 book "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror," by Michael Scheuer. The book is an incisive examination of US foreign policy in the Middle East, but that fact aside, and given this blog focuses on economic issues, I want to hone in on a 2002 quote by al Qaeda's Abu-Ubayd al-Qurashi as provided by Scheuer. This quote appeared in the al Qaeda publication Al-Ansar and augurs prophetically as our economy teeters in 2008:
"On the other hand, we find that God has graciously enabled the mujahedin to understand the [American] enemy's essence and nature, and indeed his center of gravity. A conviction has formed among the mujahedin that American public opinion is not the center of gravity in America....This time it is clearly apparent that the American economy is the American center of gravity. This is what Shaykh Usama bin Ladin has said quite explicitly. Supporting this penetrating strategic view is that the Disunited States of America are a mixture of nationalities, ethnic groups, and races united only by the 'American Dream,' or, to put it more correctly, worship of the dollar, which they openly call 'the Almighty Dollar.' May God be exalted greatly above what they say! Furthermore, the entire American war effort is based on pumping enormous wealth at all times, money being, as has been said, the sinew of war."
Food for thought...how does America sustain a war that costs anywhere from approximately $500 billion to $1 trillion a year, while simultaneously meeting enormous fiscal social obligations to its populace and funding a gargantuan bureaucracy...while producing and saving little if anything?
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You asked: "[H]ow does America sustain a war that costs anywhere from approximately $500 billion to $1 trillion a year, while simultaneously meeting enormous fiscal social obligations to its populace and funding a gargantuan bureaucracy...while producing and saving little if anything?"
By stealing more and more of the money of Americans through the oh-so-hard-to-understand process of inflation? Hey, it's okay as long as we don't really understand what's going on and leave the running of the economy to those in government whom we have charged with taking care of us so that we may focus on more hedonistic pursuits.
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