Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.

Bush thinks God is in his side. Just not in the 'with God's help, our skin will be as armor and every one of our arrows will strike true' way. He is more of a 'Yes, god is on our side. But it is totally up to us to do what needs to be done. You won't get any help from him until after you die' way.

It’s the same bullshit; Osama doesn’t go around claiming that you won’t die if Allah is on your side. He like Bush feels that God favours his version of what the world should be like. Yes people will have to do die, but they are both doing Gods bidding. Now that the US is shifting to the hard right with religious nuttos taking over, America will destroy itself.

And you speak Rome. I claim Rome Never Ended.

Rome ended the actual empire, the structure of Rome continues in the Catholic Church. Your little analysis which ultimately makes no sense is essentially a fib from your Cuban-Nebraskan mind.

When America as you know it dies, as will happen in what I hope are centuries, it will come back somewhere else.

Zhongguo will take up the slack…

 

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Not quite. It was a blend of celtic, anglo saxon, and then french culture, along with a bit of norse, some pict, and smattering of others. There was no roman culture left in Britain after the romans left, because of various plagues and the invasions of teh saxons. Sure, there were some roman forts and artefacts, but there is pretty much a clear cultureal break between the 2 set ups. Then the mindset of the empire was made up long after any considerations of any identity recognisable as celtic or norse. The empire became an empire proper over 1400 years after the invasion by the saxons, and had been based in part upon 300 years of judeo-christian protestant outlook, as well as a blend of greek thought, modern ideas and some admiration of the Romans. Whilst many of the intelligentsia and upper class read latin, admired rome and took its writings as a cultural base, the fact that they picked and chose what to use is clear. This picking and choosing of roman ideals came about long after the start of the empire, and was a sign mroe of it reaching its hights in the Victorian era. There were some similarities between some of the justifications for empire and who to treat yoru family etc, but much of that was independently created by the Victorians, based in part upon the religious movements of the past 300 years. Maybe you could argue that these ideals etc are necessary ot have a global empire, which may in part be true, but that is not a justification to ilnk rome with Britain.

 

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Actually, Russians (before 1917 revolution) were certain that there were 3 Romes (Rome, Byzantium, Moscow) and fourth Rome will never appear. Now those ideas come back. So, every frog praises its pond.

 

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Sorry about being off your topic and back on the original one

my 2¢

According to Thomas Barnett (Assistant for Strategic Futures, Office of Force Transformation Office of Secretary of Defense) bin laden's goal is to hijack the Middle East like Lenin and the Bolsheviks did. The more mutual hatred there is between the west and Middle East the easier it will be for him to do so. This is made easier by the same phenomenon that bush used to win the election: georing->

I honestly don’t think bin laden gives a flying f*** about America, or how much money it has

more about Barnett
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail238.html

 

"According to Thomas Barnett (Assistant for Strategic Futures, Office of Force Transformation Office of Secretary of Defense) bin laden's goal is to hijack the Middle East like Lenin and the Bolsheviks did. The more mutual hatred there is between the west and Middle East the easier it will be for him to do so."

D'uh! I thought that was pretty damn obvious years ago. Stir up trouble, get people on both sides to overreact and involve innocents, create a few atrocities and ensure your people are in place to exploit them. The fact that this has an economic effect as well probably didnt occur to them originally, but now its become obvious that it does, it becomes another way for Bin Laden to boast.

 

You just said exactly what I said! The only difference is that you think he has adopted a new way of going about his plan. I am saying that was part of the plan in the first place. How on earth can you think attacking financially is a NEW strategy?? Was that not the point of hitting the World Trade Centers!?!?

 

Hey, you misunderstand, I think that has been his plan from the beggining. Why else hit the world trade centres indeed, you are entirely correct. If my brain was still working (I think i've mentioned elsewhere that i am just coming off night shift) I would try and dig up some historical examples.

 

lol, We are auguring the same point, that’s funny. Well, in that case, I declare we both win the argument.

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Unless someone has the cahones to try and argue with both of us.
(is that how you spell "cahones"? I dont know)

 

cojones.

I think bin Laden believes (or at least, at one time believed) in what he is fighting for.
He hates the US because of it's involvement in Israel and it's influence on the Arab nations.

His declaration of war...

 

Well, we have been hearing the deficit is exploding for years and America heading towards bankruptcy, but still there she is....

I just wonder , does it really matter America has astronomical deficit, just how heigh this deficit can go before catastrophy strikes?? Maybe the world has invested too much money in the States to allow them to go bankrupt?

BTW: bankruptcy would be the quickest way to implement the Ownership Soceity, aka a return to the days of the wild wild West....

 

Good point Vortexx...

Let's refocus our discussion toward; Can the world allow the US Economy to Collapse? Is such a massive economy capable of collapsing?

 

I was asking about this earlier inthe thread. Thanks, I thought that was why Bin Laden is attacking the US.

 

The Roman economy collapsed because it could no longer expand. Expansion in those days was hostile take over; move in and take the gold, then tax.

Now, we move into markets. What happens when America runs out of markets? Our entire system is based on growth. It matters not what the Dow Industrial average is today, but what it was yesterday, and what it will go up (or down) to tomorrow.

It's not a matter of the world allowing the US economy to collapse; it's a matter of how long constant expansion can last.

 

Maybe, as markets are increasingly served by the chinese, the usa would move towards the Roman model of hostile takeovers?

One could view the enormous spending on the millitary apparatus and the involvement in iraq as telltale signs in such directions?

I can only hope the Americans would rather direct their energy towards expansion in space, grabbing the moonresources etc, cause at least they wouldn't have to step on everybodies toes (except the little green men would write angry letters to Kofi Anan) to quench their thurst...

the initial investments for developing the moon are literally Astronomical, but IMO not more crazy than the amount spend on F-22 raptors for instance and could maybe be the start of a new golden era....