Bin Laden Used a Similar Strategy to Decimate American Capitalism as Reagan Used to Hasten End of Soviet Communism

In a cave somewhere on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, Osama Bin Laden must be laughing as he watches the collapse of American capitalism as we know it, which -- with an assist from George Bush -- he has done so much to catalyze.

Indeed Osama Bin Laden's efforts to help wreck the pillars of the American "free market" economy bear a striking resemblance to Ronald Reagan's strategy that helped lead to the collapse of Soviet communism: Scare them into an arms race which they couldn't afford and which would undermine the very fabric of their economic, social and political system.

Thanks to the overreaction by the Bush/Cheney administration along with the neocons and free market fundamentalists of the Republican Party, Bin Laden has succeeded in harming America far beyond his wildest dreams, much as the overreaction by the leaders of the Politburo to Reagan's arms build-up undermined an already faltering Soviet system.

By 1980, when Reagan took office, the Soviet Union was already in long term crisis due to an over-reliance on centralized planning and a command economy that could not meet the economic needs of its people, while they tried to maintain the largest conventional armed forces in the world and a high-tech nuclear force. The Soviets were also bogged down in an unwinnable counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan that was sapping the strength and morale of the Russian military. The Afghan insurgency was led by Islamic fundamentalists, funded by tens of millions of dollars in secret US aide, and one of whose American-supported leaders was a young Saudi millionaire named Osama Bin Laden. In a supreme irony, Bin Laden's organization, which was in part an American creation, may have significantly contributed to the decline of the two great empires of the late 20th Century, the Soviet Union and now the United States.

In an effort to cripple the Soviet economy, Reagan began a $1.5 trillion dollar US military increase. Foolishly, the Soviet leaders were suckered into believing that they had to match American's military build-up. In doing so, while dogmatically following their outdated economic orthodoxy, they pushed the Soviet economic system beyond the breaking point and presided over the break-up of the Russian empire.

While Reagan's unprecedented military build-up may have hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union, it also did great long-term harm to the United States. Reagan increased defense spending by 45% while cutting domestic programs by 21% and ballooning the national debt. As Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Rhodes has written, "The superpower nuclear arms races and the corresponding militarization of the American economy gave us ramshackle cities, broken bridges, failing schools, entrenched poverty, impeded life expectancy, and a menacing and secretive national-security state."

In short, while perhaps hastening the end of the Cold War, Reagan's policies also began the process that undermined America's long-term economic vitality which eventually, after 7 ½ years of Bush/Cheney's similar policies, has brought the American economic system to the brink of collapse.

Confronted with the danger of the very same Osama Bin Laden -- whose insurgency weakened the Soviet empire -- the Bush/Cheney administration made the same mistakes as the old Soviet leaders made in their response to the threats from Ronald Reagan.

The Bush/Cheney administration began an unsustainable military build-up and initiated an unwinnable counterinsurgency war which it could not afford, putting extreme strain on the economy. After failing to catch Bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora where it had him trapped, Bush invaded Iraq where Al Qaida did not previously exist, at a hard cost to date of over $700 billion dollars which is continuing to increase by $12 billion a month. (Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has predicted that when the hidden costs like death benefits and long-term health care expenses for the troops, equipment replacement costs, and interest on the debt are added, the real cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars could reach $3 trillion dollars.)

Moreover, Bush paid for the War by putting the cost on the US government's credit card, asking no sacrifices from the American people except for the overstretched military, and cutting taxes in a time of war, primarily for the wealthy. In the last year of the Clinton Presidency, the US government ran a surplus of $236 billion and projections going forward were for a 10 year surplus of $5.6 trillion. It was the last black ink America would see for decades, perhaps forever. Even before the recent credit crisis and last week's $840 billion bailout, it was a projected that the next President would inherit an annual budget deficit of about $400 billion. This past weekend, the National Debt Clock in New York, which calculates the long-term national debt, passed the $10 trillion mark, actually running out of space to keep counting.

In addition, Bush used the political capital he gained from waging a war on terrorism to institute extreme fundamentalist "free market" policies, much as the Soviet leaders had doubled down on their own flawed economic policies. The Bush/Cheney administration further deregulated the economy, among other things allowing Wall Street to leverage its debt to equity ratios on mortgage backed securities up to 30-1, leading to the recent freeze up of credit markets.

As his final coup de grace to the American way of life, Bush and his Wall Street backers have convinced Congress and the American people, rightly or wrongly, that the only way to avert complete economic meltdown is for President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson to drive their Brinks truck up to the Treasury and load it up with $840 billion dollars of increased government debt. Let's only hope that this plan succeeds in partially alleviating the worst of the catastrophe.

Grover Norquist, the theoretician of the Bush economic strategy, said that he wanted to shrink government until it would drown in the bath tub. Instead, under Bush/Cheney, government grew to the size of a gorilla that is literally eating the American people out of house and home. American capitalism as we know it is over. I don't know if you can call the result socialism, since only the losses are socialized while the profits continue to be privatized. But it's certainly not free market capitalism--The Secretary of the Treasury will have economic powers that may exceed even those of the old Soviet Union's Minister of Finance. Even if the bailout works, at the very best, America faces a long recession, increased unemployment, more foreclosures, further bank failures, and a debt that will still be being paid off by our children and grandchildren. A President Obama may have to spend the first years of his administration cleaning up the toxic economic and military mess left by Bush/Cheney administration. A President McCain, with his policies of endless war and renewed tax cuts for the wealthy, would only add to the toxicity.

While it took Ronald Reagan hundreds of millions of dollars to hasten the end of the Soviet communist system, it only took Osama Bin Laden 20 men and 3 hijacked airplanes to hasten the end of the American free market system as we know it. In fact, on Friday an Al Qaida leader released a video on the internet proclaiming that "the enemies of Islam are facing a crushing defeat, which is beginning to manifest itself in the expanding crisis their economy is experiencing, a crisis whose primary cause...[is] the abortive and unsustainable crusades they are waging in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq."

Somewhere in Waziristan, Osama Bin Laden has a big smile on his face. Thank you, President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Comments

[RoloTomassi]

I wish no one economic harm, nor do I relish this mess BushCo has culminated; that said, the fall of Friedmanite economics had to happen [as it does with all fundamentally flawed systems], and I for one am glad to see it go.

This is our opportunity to us the "blank page" approach the NeoCons love so well; we can reshape the US to embrace regulation of markets once again, and set the stage for the eventual acceptance of a true UHC system. But first we mus KILL THE BEAST.

It must be the mission of the Left to shine a light on the NeoCons and their era of laissez faire warfare in the name of globalization; such must be completely discredited and brought to an end. We are at a crossroads in US history, much as we were after the Great Depression--we can let the loonies resume control, or we can organize and push for what we need from our government.

One notion the conservatives have gotten right is the need to modify government--but our mission has to be about changing the dynamics of what truly drives our systems, rather than to eliminate government that actually serves a purpose. Conservatives and Liberals alike will never admit that the system as it stands isn't truly functional; we've come close enough to the Right's ideal to know that such is a very bad approach; now is the time to reverse the tide.

[BarackMarley]

Very good piece. The USSR fell because it spent to much money trying to compete with the US militarily. Once it gave up its neo-colonial empire, it was able to resurrect itself. One of the major factors for the USSR's failure was its long drawn out war with Bin Laden's mujahadeen. McCain even reffered to Bin Laden and the mujahadeen as freedom fighters in the last debate

Read about it Here
http://newsone.blackplanet.com/nation/mccain-called-bin-laden-a-freedom-fighter/

[Wim1974]

In the end everything will come to this. increased unemployment, increased poverty, a large increase in crime, increase in foodprizes, gas, energy... And while everyone is blaming everyone for creating this mess, the real culprits will be long gone with their golden parachutes.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

And both time I paid for it with my tax dollars.

[Nahnmon]

This is what happens when you underestimate your enemy and overestimate yourself. We voted for a dummy, strings attached. That dummy was operated by a shadow bureaucracy (neocons / kremlin) with the results we're now seeing.

The difference between tactic and strategy seems really important now - Obama understands this better than McCain. Is he perfect, no - but the alternative is to keep spiraling down. An era of sacrifice is officially upon us - we'll get to experience it as we have to bum a ride up to the space station from the Russians and the Chinese for the next decade or so.

[SamThornton]

Would be an amusing tale, the similar calculations of Reagan and bin-Laden, if it were true. Unfortunately, Reagan's wasted billions on his ludicrous Star Wars initiative and other military spending had nothing to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which imploded because of corruption and inefficiencies in their state-run industrial sector. Osama bin-Laden, although we credit him with much, is not clever enough to come up with a far-ranging, Goldfinger-like global economic ploy triggered by the butterfly wing of a terrorist attack, even if it would have worked. He simply wanted to discredit the U.S. government by killing some of its citizens.

[rich_misty]

"Osama bin-Laden, although we credit him with much, is not clever enough to come up with a far-ranging, Goldfinger-like global economic ploy triggered by the butterfly wing of a terrorist attack, even if it would have worked."

Wrong.

Go back and research Bin Laden. He declared a Jihad, and the mission statement was to entice the US into an unwinable war, specifically resulting in a bankupted US economy.

Bush literally, played right into his hands. And you know something else? Bush and the GOP have severely weakened the United States, we are economically crippled.

Thanks GOP supporters!!!!

[crashman1369]

As far as crippling the Economy, look further back than Bush, and do not credit Osama to be so foward thinking. Look at what has happened to the Worker's Unions, the creation and abuse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the last 20 years, and the de-regulations that have occurred to allow Americans who could not afford to buy homes to actually get a loan and now are going into foreclosure. This occurred in the 1990's and was only perpetuated into the turn of the century. The restriction of Oil Production and alternate energy resource development also has been restricted well before Bush got into power as well.

Two wars at once was probably not in the best interest of America - especially since our troops have not been adequately prepared to fight a war since Vietnam, and were systematically dismantled after the Gulf War to almost deplorable levels. Troop pay and benefits were brought down to almost poverty levels in the 1990's. It took the War on Terror to make us realize how inadequately prepared our men and women in uniform were to go into battle.

Bush mismanaged both wars....and we are suffering, but neither situation was created by him. Our troubles with Iraq and Afghainstan started with Carter and Reagan and were perpetuated by Bush Sr. and Clinton. I suggest you research this information a little bit more before you make accusations about the GOP ruining this country.

[crashman1369]

rich_misty - where did you get the mission statement from? I have researched Osama's or fatwa that he and Zawahiri declared in 1998:

" the ruling to kill the Americans and their allies civilians and military"is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah'."

It doesn't mention anything about an unwinnable war or to bankrupting the US. You might want to do your research and come back with some proof.

Osama has been an American hater for a long time....since 1979 or better. He did not trust Americans in Afghanistan and he and Azzam formed the Maktab Al-Khadamat (MAK) to help fund, train, support, and supply the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan independently of Pakistan and the US. Osama broke away from MAK to form Al Qaeda with Zawahiri because of Strategic differences...Azzam wanted Arabs and Afghans to work together and Osama and Zawahiri wanted their own fighting forces separate from the Afghans.

[peterg76]

The Reagan myth is pure neo-con fantasy. Real historians have looked at the old Soviet documents and concluded that if anything Reagan delayed the end of communism by making it more difficult for the hard-liners to accept reform.

[Overd0g]

Actually, Barney Frank did by ignoring the looming credit crisis in the GSEs. As usual the best of intentions, and the dumbest of minds, is bringing the whole circus tent down. And yes, Bush and his absurd spending binge (domestic and war) has contributed greatly.