bin Laden succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

[Brigid]

From the time someone first pitched to him the idea of hijacking planes full of jet fuel and flying them into important buildings in the US, he probably never envisioned that three out of four of the planes would actually hit their intended targets; that Chimpy and Company would overreact the way they did; that we would turn ourselves into a police state; and that we're still running around like frightened chickens twelve years later, even after he's dead. He probably considers it well worth getting shot and his body dumped into the Indian Ocean.

[jsr]

1. No truer words.

[whatchamacallit]

2. <Somebody> succeeded

in creating an endless cash cow.

[Brigid]

5. Yep.

A cash cow still giving milk to this day, with no sign of slowing down.

[Democracyinkind]

3. I couldn't agree more.

He got everything he wanted and then some; he made us give even more substance to his rants. Another one of those incidents of history where violence ultimately succeeds. But even though it is his success; it is our doing - as far as I know OBL was never a member of congress or the senate, or POTUS, for that matter.

[warrant46]

4. Every time I go to take an airplane trip

I admire how this bastard still affects my world.

Thanks for the pat down and junk fondling.

And watching an 80 year old nun display her soiled underwear for the Crowd and the TSA Priceless

</sarcasm>

[Nye Bevan]

6. Ummm... I imagine his "wildest dreams" involved the collapse of Western capitalism.

We've built a new World Trade Center, taller than the last one. We are still a thriving capitalist democracy. We still allow women to drive and wear bikinis. Hollywood is still going strong polluting the rest of the world with its movies.

Meanwhile, he had to stay indoors for years to try to avoid discovery (albeit with a considerable porn stash to keep him company) only to be ignominiously shot by Navy SEALs. And his body eaten by fish.

[Brigid]

8. Of course plenty of things have not changed.

Of course we survived, and his sorry ass is sleeping with the fishes.But he succeeded in many ways that we can still see, and probably always will.

[avebury]

11. The thriving capitalist democracy is one that

benefits the Corporations, 1%ers and MIC. It is a myth. The overwhelming majority of citizens are not thriving but continue to sink. I would say that we are migrating more towards a Fascist Government in the long run.

[bvar22]

13. "still a thriving capitalist democracy"?

Would you like some Fries with that shit?

[rl6214]

7. I'm sure he would.

[Hydra]

9. "PNAC succeeded beyond their wildest dreams"

FTFY.

[johnnyreb]

10. "the 9/11 terrorists were not just lucky once: they were lucky over and over again"

9/11 widow Mindy Kleinberg:

Statement of Mindy Kleinberg to the
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
March 31, 2003
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/hearings/hearing1/witness_kleinberg.htm

(8 minute video of testimony)

[Bigmack]

12. You forgot to mention the money....

Beyond the lives... American and innocent Iraqi and Afghani... we blew $3 Trillion on those wars.

That left a mark.

A self-inflicted mark.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

[Brigid]

15. Oh, yes. Gotta talk about the money.

Getting us to blow ridiculous amounts of money on "security" was perhaps bin Laden's greatest achievement of all.

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. He did, but looked at from another perspective, America failed beyond our

greatest fears. It's ironic that 20 years after the "conservatives" took over and "got this nation back on the track to greatness", the entire nation failed in every respect to deal with one well-funded group of wackos. All the massive bureaucracies that are supposed to control through authority, the most powerful military in history, the huge law enforcement apparatus at every level, and let's not forget those "leaders" that live on our efforts.

Yep, failure on an unprecedented scale.