Real Legacy of 9/11: The Rich Win

A 'cabal of extremist millionaires' dominate policy: Gerald Caplan
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 10, 2011 3:49 PM CDT
The Rich Use 9/11 to Dominate the Poor: Gerald Caplan
FILE- In this Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, a shell of what was once part of the facade of one of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center rises above the rubble that remains after both towers were destroyed in the terrorist attacks. A decade’s worth of study has answered only a handful of questions...   (AP Photo/Shawn Baldwin, File)

After 9/11, a "cabal of extremist billionaires" escalated a class war that has crushed the American people and threatened the world, Gerald Caplan writes in the Globe & Mail. "There are more filthy rich folks now than at any other moment in history," he writes, but wounded war veterans have been neglected, and 9/11 first responders nearly lost their health care when the GOP made a politically scary gamble to save the Bush tax cuts. "Writ small, this is the history of the post-9/11 world."

Drawing on ideas of Naomi Klein, Caplan sees radically free market policies dominating the world since 9/11, from Iraq oil reserves to private mercenary armies to public facilities closed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Then came "the catastrophic economic collapse engineered by the geniuses of Wall Street," and "the latest elite consensus"—austerity programs—which have hurt people even more. "Osama bin Laden inflicted a terrible crime on the American people," writes Caplan. "America’s elites and their allies have done the rest." (More 9/11 attacks stories.)

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