Didn't take too long after the fall of the Berlin Wall to get to that state did it?
To me it is fairly simple. The Soviet threat went away, and the big intelligence agencies were left with not a lot to do. So a new enemy was born: Arabs, Muslims and Terror. Perfect scary enemies for pliable populations. I think the "war on drugs" also fills the Soviet void too.
My big worry with all this is that the US and West in general go too far and it genuinely becomes a religious world war. Hard for me, as some one who doesn't do religion, not to see this as christians vs muslims. Bush called it a "crusade" and claimed his god told him what to do, after all. Interesting too that Blair, the UK PM who backed Bush, immediately turned to the cathoilics once he left office, presumably for the forgiveness of his conscience.
Lastly, terrorists are no real threat at all, numbers and money wise. We in the UK had the IRA for decades, and frankly the damage they did, while devastating to individuals, was very low. Interestingly we always resisted the notion that it was a war. We felt that legitimised the IRA.
Note to Amerians: the IRA terror ended by NEGOTIATION. Not a military victory. We could still be fighting them today. Note also that AMERICANS were instrumental and vital in that negotiated peace. So you chaps do know other ways, peaceful ways, intelligent ways.
To me it is fairly simple. The Soviet threat went away, and the big intelligence agencies were left with not a lot to do. So a new enemy was born: Arabs, Muslims and Terror. Perfect scary enemies for pliable populations. I think the "war on drugs" also fills the Soviet void too.
My big worry with all this is that the US and West in general go too far and it genuinely becomes a religious world war. Hard for me, as some one who doesn't do religion, not to see this as christians vs muslims. Bush called it a "crusade" and claimed his god told him what to do, after all. Interesting too that Blair, the UK PM who backed Bush, immediately turned to the cathoilics once he left office, presumably for the forgiveness of his conscience.
Lastly, terrorists are no real threat at all, numbers and money wise. We in the UK had the IRA for decades, and frankly the damage they did, while devastating to individuals, was very low. Interestingly we always resisted the notion that it was a war. We felt that legitimised the IRA.
Note to Amerians: the IRA terror ended by NEGOTIATION. Not a military victory. We could still be fighting them today. Note also that AMERICANS were instrumental and vital in that negotiated peace. So you chaps do know other ways, peaceful ways, intelligent ways.