War and Terrorism

A word about terrorism and war. They are not the same thing. Bush and his ilk and the deluded US American public responded to the WTC terrorist attack (immediately misnamed the "Attack on America" when it was, in fact, an attack on "World Trade") with organized war on two sovereign nations. Neither war had the least effect in reducing terrorism anywhere, because terrorists do not field a finite army or defend a particular territory. Instead, wars and aggressively patriotic responses further inflame the fevered ideologies (rational at their roots but lunatic at the fringe) leading to more terrorism. But "War works" in other ways: in solidifying support for an otherwise questionable regime at home, in justifying reductions in civil liberties at home and increases in imperialistic behavior abroad, in further destabilizing oil-rich areas of the world to create opportunities for US American multi-national corporations, etc. For these purposes, it does not matter who wins.