How did we get the worst of the worst, if we don't follow the trail any further back than Bin Laden?

Anyone marginally following history knows Bin Laden was just another soldier, following other's imperatives.

While I was never in the army, I had various family members who were. One of which was an half uncle, several years older, who was more of an older brother.

When we were quite young, he had a large toy military.

Once I remember thinking he was letting me play with all the fun stuff, the ones with the guns, while he had the boring stuff, so I asked him and he said, because I'm telling you want to do.

It was a lesson that stuck with me my entire life, to follow the trail back, not forward, if you really want to know who and what is in control.

For instance, could the capital markets function, without the government siphoning up trillions in surplus investment money? No. The secret sauce of capitalism is public debt backing private wealth.

Yet because this cycle started with the Great Depression and World War 2, much of that excess savings of the country has been poured into an enormous, strategically inept military, basically as a burn pit, rather than find ways to actually invest in long term goals.

The consequences are now coming back to bite us and the Afghan debacle is only the first domino.

There are many more to follow and by the time our children are our age, the United States will be much further on its way to becoming several countries, as the one unifying factor in our atomized, monetized society, the dollar, crumbles.