Some highlights from an article in the washing Times. Is this person wrong?
Bin Laden’s goal was to trigger a clash of civilizations. He sought to pit radical Islam against the West, becoming a galvanizing force for Muslim militants everywhere. He gave new life to the Islamist project of imposing a global caliphate based on Shariah law. Revolutionary Islamism has tens of millions of followers, spreading like locusts across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Europe. Bin Laden may be dead, but his macabre ghost lives on.
Bin Laden’s strategic ambition was to suck the United States into prolonged guerrilla wars. Being a man of the East, he understood that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. Britain, czarist Russia, the Soviet Union - their armies were broken by Afghanistan’s harsh terrain and fierce tribes. His aim was to bankrupt America, slowly bleeding us as we fought one counterinsurgency operation after another. In short, he set a trap - and we rushed headlong into it.
After the fall of the Taliban, he (Bush), embarked upon nation-building. The Muslim world was to be made safe for democracy. America was pushing a “freedom agenda” for Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon.
The results have been disastrous. In Iraq, about 4,400 U.S. troops are dead, 30,000 have been maimed or wounded, and more than $1 trillion has been spent. Instead of being a pro-Western pluralistic democracy, the Iraqi government is championing Shariah and drifting into Tehran’s orbit. Iran has benefited at America’s expense.
In Afghanistan, President Obama’s troop surge has failed. It has become America’s longest war - nearly a decade and counting. Our troops are hamstrung by strict rules of engagement that make any kind of victory impossible. In fact, U.S. forces have been transformed into a muscular Peace Corps. Their job is not so much to kill terrorists as to build roads, schools and hospitals.
Our drone strikes are inciting mass anti-Americanism among both Afghans and Pakistanis. Our supposed ally in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai, is a corrupt thug who is openly contemptuous of U.S. military involvement. He is constantly fanning public opinion against America. Rather than winning, we are losing the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans. Nearly 1,000 U.S. soldiers have died since Mr. Obama took office. Billions in U.S. aid has been stolen by corrupt local officials. American blood and treasure are being squandered in a futile - and reckless - effort at nation-building.
Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. establishment has embraced a globalist ideology: democratic universalism. Both neoconservatives and liberal interventionists believe America must spread democratic values, even through the barrel of a gun.
America has become the new Roman Empire. And like all multinational empires, we are overextended, our military is stretched too thin, and our treasury is depleted.
