Back in the Reagan years, when I was corrupting young minds as an adjunct instructor of geophysical sciences, I would show a video of a PBS documentary to students of a Geography of the Soviet Union class. The video was about a trip to the USSR by a group of older USA citizens. One of the characters they met stated to the tour group that the USA was spending the USSR into bankruptcy. In truth, the USSR just could not compete financially against the capitalist forces of the western countries. Every time we spent a dollar on munitions or the like, the USSR felt compelled to do the same. The USSR blinked first. The USA claimed victory.
As one consequence of 9/11/2001, the USA has spent incredible amounts of money (can't be cash, since it doesn't seem to exist any more) on war against terrorists. Other fantasmagorical sums of money have been spent on who knows what. In the USA'a attempt to overcome terrorism, we have spent ourselves into insolvency. The Milton Friedman Chicago School of Economic Terrorism (masquerading as Libertarianism) just shrugs and bin Laden laughs. The attack on the World Trade buildings has lead to ecnomic defeat for capitalism.
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