Robin Baldock writes:
I think Osama died a happy man he successfully drew the US into two major wars and lived to see the beginning of the end of its economic supremacy knowing that he contributed to its downfall.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-real-meaning-of-bin-ladens-death-2279630.html
Extracts:
Osama bin Laden wanted to draw the West into endless bloody wars that haemorrhaged billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. He told his supporters: “We conducted a war of attrition against Russia for 10 years until they went bankrupt. We are continuing in the same policy to make America bleed profusely to the point of bankruptcy.”
Studies by terrorism experts Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank found that the invasion of Iraq and the torture used there caused a seven-fold increase in global jihadism.
Even General David Petraeus the new head of the CIA says there are only 100 al-Qa’ida fighters in the whole of Afghanistan. One senior military official speaking to the Washington Post compared their intelligence on them to “Bigfoot sightings”. Crunch the numbers and you find we (the US) are spending $1.5bn a year on each al-Qa’ida fighter in Afghanistan. Is there anyone except the private defence contractors making a fortune who thinks that is a smart use of cash?