More than three years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, Bin laden released a videotape in which he staked out his ultimate goal; to bankrupt America.
"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy, Allah willing. And nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said.
The al Qaeda leader said his goal was to do to the US what had previously been done to the Soviet Union; slowly bleed it to death in a long, intractable military conflict in Afghanistan.
Though the Afghans were outgunned and out-spent by the Soviets, they used "guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers," bin Laden said.
This same strategy, which bin Laden referred to as the "bleed-until-bankruptcy plan," was being utilized to ultimately defeat the mighty US, he said.
At the time of the video's release, in November 2004, the US national debt was more than $7 trillion and the federal deficit was $413 billion.
"Every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million dollars, by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs," said bin Laden. "As for the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars."
For all this expense, bin Laden said, America would "suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note, other than some benefits for their private corporations."
Even bin Laden knew about the influence of America's Military-Industrial Complex. He was well aware of its political connections and power.
Driving the US further into debt showed "that al Qaeda has gained. But on the other hand it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something that anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced.
"And it all shows that the real loser is you," he said. "It is the American people and their economy."
The cagey al Qaeda leader displayed a keen foresight that now seems rather remarkable.
Of President Bush, Bin Laden said, "the darkness of black gold blurred his vision and insight, and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests of America.
"So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threaten his future," bin Laden said.
In the end, he was right.
Simultaneous engagement in two wars — Afghanistan and Iraq — has saddled the US with enormous debts. But that onerous debt burden only became crippling when, for the first time in US history, the government cut taxes as it went to war.
http://independentreport.blogspot.com/2011/05/osama-bin-ladens-ultimate-goal-bankrupt.html
