Al Qaeda still a threat, but not really

sometimes you have to stop yourself and wonder, how could the most advanced society in the history of the world act with such primitive fear and fury after a sucker punch like the 9-11 attacks.

the photo of the alleged "mastermind" of the plot, osama bin laden, standing in front of a wrinkled sheet as he delivers one of his fatwas or whatever, tells much. against the assembled money and might of the world's greatest empire, this single man was made into a bogeyman of unmatched power and menace.

after a decade and trillions of dollars squandered in a fake war against "terrorism," what is the result? the compliant, pliable corporate media establishment is both reassuring and full of menace:

Al Qaeda shadow of former self 10 years after 9/11 | Reuters: "(Reuters) - Al Qaeda's core leadership is badly wounded and almost certainly incapable of mounting another attack like the one on September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington, according to U.S. and European security officials.

But even as the threat of spectacular, coordinated mass-casualty attacks by al Qaeda seems to have faded, it has been replaced by new worries -- the network's violent spinoff groups and individual radical "lone wolves," to name two."

we can and must fight the bogeyman forever. though bin laden die a thousand deaths, he comes back, manifest in spinoff groups and lone wolves -- just enough of a threat that we must keep the throttle of our righteous fury wide open, lest anyone question our nation's strength and resolve!

the people of the US, for all their wealth and military power, have always seemed to have a kind of inferiority complex, needed to constantly kick ass to reassure themselves that no is is laughing at behind their backs. there's nothing more galling to the great mass of americans than for some wannabe power to disrespect the good and proud USA.

so it was that the iranian hostage situation back in the carter years could be so magnificently manipulated by the reaganites into a pass into the halls of power, and eventually for the national security state to reassert itself as the true civil power after the vietnam fiasco. once the vietnam syndrome had been kicked, it was only a natural progression from panama to iraq #1 to the dreams (and sorrows) of empire promoted by PNAC.

american needed bin laden more than bin laden needed america, which makes it doubly ironic that the purported agenda of al-qaeda was to draw the US into a futile series of war in the muslim world that would lead to bankruptcy. if this was indeed the intention, then it succeeded beyond the wildest imaginings of the dreamer.

some day, i fear, the world will look back on the story of 9-11 as this era's david-vs-goliath showdown, when the empire's own spawn rose up to bruise its master's ego so badly that goliath suffered and nervous breakdown, and like many a returning vet with PTSD, was never quite the same again.