Attack in France leaves over 84 dead

[s_stabeler]

So fighting terrorism caused the housing market bubble to burst? Or the mortgage crisis? Or reckless Wall Street Spending? Yea okay. And if our standing went down because he refused to sit home like sissies while being attacked, I'm fine with that. The lesser countries who think that of us really don't phase me.

actually, yes, the War On Terror can be linked to the Great Recession. how? simple. During the War On terror, there was greater deficit spending than ever before- partially because the Army didn't have the tools available beforehand, so they had to buy them in a hurry, which always costs more. That's not even mentioning the billions that have been spend on various counter-terrorist initiatives that have proved less than helpful. ( how much does it cost for the NSA's spying on american citizens?) In short, the War On Terror meant there was far less money available to combat the great Recession, both because the government was pushing up against the legal limit for the amount it can borrow, and simply because there is a limit as to how much debt you can afford ( the US National Debt costs about $400 BILLION to pay the interest on.) before you are borrowing money just to pay the interest.

As for reckless Wall Street spending, that came about because the banks weren't being held to sufficient scrutiny- partly due to concentrating on the War On Terror.

Ultimately, however, Gravekeeper has a point. In the US, how many supposedly inalienable rights are breached due to the need to fight terrorists? Off the top of my head, the prohibition against torture (waterboarding comes to mind- and yes, it IS torture.), people have been detained without trial ( a basic principle of justice is that you can't be imprisoned unless the government can prove you committed a crime. If "we haven't got enough proof to try them" is reason to imprison someone without trial, then you can easily get a tyrant who imprisons people on a whim)