We're rich, seemingly without hardly trying, while many of them struggle for every meal. Our highly-valued freedom doesn't appeal to them, but the way we revel in it offends them. That we can vote means nothing. That we choose to parade our women immorally is offensive. That we can peacably assemble is a trivial point, but our lack of support for their chosen faith is consdiered evil.
Is there anything else we could have done to not offend Bin Laden so? I don't think so. We simply represent all that he despises, and if we had never set foot in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, he would have found some other reason to hate us. We might have been able to do things to undermine his support, but maybe not.
Why are we so wealthy?.
I wonder about the source of America's prosperity. We've had the same principles of freedom in place since day one, but we haven't always been a wealthy nation. Most people agree that it wasn't until after WWII ended that America began to boom. It wasn't just the fact that we were at war, either, because no other war has had the same effect on the economy. It isn't even because we won WWII that our economy took off, because we won the first world war, too, but faced the Great Depression about 11 years later. My Libertarian soul screams in protest at the very thought, but is it possible that what boosted America up to the next level economically was The Marshall Plan?.
I'll probably lose my Libertarian credentials for even suggesting the notion that giving $12 Billion to other countries could possibly be a good thing. Still, looking back from this vantage point in history and contrasting the aftermath of the two world wars as well as various minor wars, it does seem that our actions after the war might have been just as important as the fact that we won the war. After all, those countries we threw all that money at in the 1940s are certainly our allies right now!.
The Marshall Plan Redux.
