Glenn Greenwald of Salon explores the self-perpetuating American hubris that keeps us prominent on the various “death to” lists around the world.

It’s the perfect self-perpetuating cycle:  (1) They hate us and want to attack us because we’re over there; therefore, (2) we have to stay and proliferate ourselves because they hate us and want to attack us; (3) our staying and proliferating ourselves makes them hate us and want to attack us more; therefore, (4) we can never leave, because of how much they hate us and want to attack us.

They hate us for our freedoms – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

And then there’s the stubborn blindness to the fact that America,  whose pre-eminence in national defense prowess,  is king of falling prey to every cowboy lure.  For instance, Bin Laden’s recognition that America would bankrupt itself in its swagger; take a look at the combined costs of Afghanistan, Iraq,  homeland security,  and the accompanying Bush administration’s use of these “opportunities” (as Karl Rove put it re: 9/11) to hire their contractors (Cheney’s Halliburton)  to profit from these circumstances,  and push for and be granted unprecedented executive branch powers. Looks like Bin Laden may have achieved that.  And the Obama administration hasn’t exactly been in a hurry to roll some of this back,  even in the face of the assassination of Bin Laden through intelligence methods rather than “endless war” and “war on terror”).