Not my faith but had the US relied on coca cola, Hollywood etc they would have saved money and lives and won most of the prizes.
In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks the US had a golden opportunity to respond with dignity and humility. They could have aligned themselves with the Muslim world in opposition to and of Islamism.
Instead, and inevitability, they chose to launch an unwinnable 'war on terror' (in a similar vein to their ridiculous 'war in drugs') and invade and bomb the fuck out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The result was that loads of innocent civilians were maimed and killed. Those who survived had yet more reason to hate the US (and UK), which in turn offered the Islamists more opportunity to radicalise and attract followers to their hateful cause.
As has already been mentioned, many of those Al Qaeda 'terrorists' (including Osama Bin Laden) that the US were targeting in Afghanistan were the very same men who had been trained up by the US CIA to fight against the Red Army during the '80s. Whilst some success was had in defeating (to a limited extent) the Taliban, at what cost? And for how long- twenty years? Ultimately the only thing that can be said to have been achieved was the capture and killing of Bin Laden, though that was in Pakistan and nobody's ever seen the body...
Iraq was even worse. An utter disaster. Again, so much suffering. And again, so much potential recruiting propaganda for the Islamists. Add to that the complete destabilisation of the country that led to civil war, and a power vacuum that enabled the horrific Daesh to seize control and wreak murderous havoc.
So yeah, couldn't agree with you more, Jo. Like you, perhaps even more so than you, I'm an avowed anti-capitalist but I reckon that a capitalist offensive (rather than offensive capitalism, lol!) would have been far, far more preferable, and effective, than the military offensive that they (and, unfortunately, we too) chose.
