Gordon Fitch wrote:
> > This is incorrect. The muscle of "the world's superpower"
> > was virtually untouched by the attack. It has even proved
> > unnecessary, thus far, to replace the clown act at the helm.
> > On the whole, the liberal Imperium was greatly strengthened
> > and refreshed and is looking for new opportunities to
> > exercise its talents for destruction and subjugation
> > abroad.
Chuck Munson:
> I disagree. The muscle of the world's superpower was powerless to stop the
> 9-11 attacks. They didn't even have any jet fighters ready to shoot down
> the planes. The fighters that were scrambled were Air National Guard jets.
>
> What was Empire's response to the attacks? Since their wonderful armies
> and air forces are incapable of fighting assymetrical warfare, they went
> over to Afghanistan and bounced the rubble around. They shot off so many
> cruise missiles at tents, caves and wedding parties, that they've plain
> shot their wad. That's one of the reasons why they aren't ready to invade
> Iraq.
>
> I'm sorry, but I see an Empire in decline and one that is incredibly weak
> and vulnerable right now.
>
> Watch out for those terrorist scuba divers!
I really don't see what vulnerability you're talking about. The progress of liberal capitalist imperialism was not only not impeded by the attacks, within a few hours they were being used to advance the agenda in a great variety of ways. I doubt if I need to recite the details. The Left has been sadly divided, and has been unable to put forward even such simple, obvious ideas as that the attacks were a natural consequence of imperialism -- that after bombing and invading ten or twenty countries around the world as a matter of normal policy, the U.S. might be expected to suffer some kind of blowback. In fact, I risk the ire of some of the members of the CFS on this leftist mailing list by even mentioning the idea -- I'll be accused of "justifying fascist atrocities" or some such nonsense.
On the whole, "war is the health of the State", including assymetrical war. At most, war replaces one state with another -- a fine outcome if one is a right-wing religious zealot, but not to my taste.
-- Gordon