After much reflection, I have come to the conclusion that the Afghan and Iraq wars may have been instigated, not only because of 9-11, mainly due to recession caused to US involvement in the Yugoslav wars, the second Gulf War and financial problems caused by globalism. However, it is mainly because of a strong desire for financial gain that a financial recession preceded the wars in both fronts.
Had the US Government and its corporate sponsors not been so focused on gain, perhaps a different scenario might have played out following 9-11. For there is a strong tie between gain and revenge, as evidenced by the many different corporations that played a part in the drama unfolding in Kabul as well as Baghdad.
One strong proof that US-based multi-national corporations may be playing a role in Iraq cones to light in the revelation that a certain VA official who recently stepped down was also the same individual nobody listened to when he stated that a total withdrawal from Iraq would lead to disaster.
When his words came true, the Bush administration lost credibility and their days were doomed.
When Blackwater attacked civilians later, it took seven years to bring six of the men caught in the firefight to be brought to justice. In the fall out of that incident, Blackwater became Academi. As well, there were never any WMD in Iraq. For the Iraq War is the result of a decade of propaganda, and has left Iraq more vulnerable to attack by al Qaeda than ever before.
All that the Afghan War has done is push the Taliban into Pakistan to their backers among the Pakistan warlords. How can launching drone attacks do anything more than polarize the Pakistanis?
Today it has been three years since Arab Spring, and the Syrian uprising has morphed into a purported civil war, with the rebels supported by the US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. al Qaeda operates on two fronts, through al Nusrah and ISIS, with ISIS being unwanted because of their criminal acts against both sides.
Meanwhile, in northeastern Nigeria, the Boko Haram have stolen over 300 girls, all because GoodLuck Jonathan, the president of Nigeria, has amassed an oil fortune worth billions, billions of oil dollars that he only shares with his in-group. Once again, oil has led to corruption.
In Saudi Arabia, four beautiful princesses are slowly starving to death due to the Saudi King's ill-will towards their mother. This too is due to corruption caused by oil wealth.
In my opinion, financial gain is in part the root of the world's ills because despite seeking it, the world corporations give back very little. Corruption is the result of concentrating wealth in the hands of a limited amount of people. It is this inability to share wealth that is rooted in a certain mindset that believes power and control is determined by the amount of wealth you amass.
Yet the truth is, the more you share what little you have, the better off all of society is. Free-market capitalists will never understand this truth about wealth because they only believe in physical wealth. They do not understand that true wealth consists not only of what you own but also of what is in your heart.
Without generosity, only the richest people are powerful. Because of generosity, even the poor are enriched. That a nation thinks only of Wealth in terms of how to amass it without considering generosity astonishes me. For without charity, what good is wealth?
9-11 was done as a revolt against globalism because of its impact on the Third World and especially on the Middle East. After 9-11, the people fighting for freedom around the world were recast as terrorists, even though it is freedom that they fight for. This includes Chechens, Palestinians, Moroccans, First Nations, Turks, and Uyghurs among many people fighting for the right of self determination. It even includes the Tibetans.
This even includes the freedom of Russians in the Ukraine.
However, with freedom comes the challenge to not morph it into license and abuse the freedom gained from struggle. Rather than using freedom to amass wealth and the challenges that brings, it may be even more freeing to make enough money to afford to life simply. That way, it is possible to avoid much of the problems that financial success brings to us.
For what good is wealth if when you become successful, someone else is going to steal it? It could be a better life to live simply and not to make a lot of wealth, but enough to stay alive without wanting more. However, that takes a lot of sacrifice to accomplish.
None of what happened after 9-11 surprises me. It became unnecessary to use encryption to validate email immediately after until the recent revelation that Canada spies on its citizens. Then the use of HTTPS became more common, though the majority of web traffic is unencrypted because most people assume that by having nothing to hide, there is no point in encryption.
Even so, would you open your router to everyone by removing the password to WiFi access?
Without wealth there is poverty. Yet with poverty, there is the means to climb out of it, not to become immensely successful, but to live simply. And a rich man cannot live simply.
This is what 9-11 has taught me.
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