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Over the last several decades thee true
costs of the wars the U.S. has waged overseas have been largely hidden.
We have had to pay the military bills but few Americans have died. The
death and destruction was all overseas. That changed on September 11.
The violence reached the United States.
The September 11 attacks, however, were not simply acts of retribution.
They were also provocation. Bin Laden expected the U.S. to respond with
massive violence, knowing this would bring him new recruits. Ultimately,
he hoped to win the majority of the Muslim world to support his holy war
on the U.S.
[Osama bin Laden says:] More martyrs, more recruits.
The Bush Administration responded according to bin Laden's script.
George W. Bush declared a War on Terrorism," using "good vs. evil"
rhetoric that mirrored bin Laden's. Bush and his advisors were ready,
even eager, for the war bin Laden wanted. They saw the September 11
attacks as a grand opportunity to boost military spending and
demonstrate U.S. military power to the world. [73]
"This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil ... This
crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while." (G.W. Bush,
Sept. 12 and 16, 2001)
The self-righteous "good vs. evil" rhetoric of the "War on Terrorism"
sharpens ironies that have long shadowed U.S. pronouncements against
state-sponsored terrorism. President Bush, for instance, promised to
scour the globe in search of states that harbor terrorists.
He could have started in the State of Florida.
What do you mean?
For over forty years, Miami has served as the base of operations for
well-financed groups of Cuban exiles that have carried out violent
terrorist attacks on Cuba.
Mostly recently, they bombed a number of Havana tourist spots in 1997,
killing an Italian tourist, and they tried to assassinate Fidel Castro
in Panama in 2000.
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