The Canadian Dissident

25 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, what has America's "War on Terror" accomplished?  Afghanistan is once again under the Taliban's control.   Iraq is fractured and overrun by competing militias.  Syria is ruled by a former al-Qaeda militant. Yemen is divided by civil war. Israel is bombing Lebanon and committing genocide against Palestinians.   The U.S. is entangled in another long-term war, this time against Iran.  Since 2001, the “War on Terror” has killed millions of people , cost trillions of dollars , caused  environmental devastation , and made the world more unstable and unsafe. It continues to be a complete failure on every front. Unfortunately, the U.S. has failed to learn from their overseas misadventures, and  Canada is still following America's lead, supporting and legitimizing U.S. militarism. If we want a foreign policy independent of the U.S., we must stop collaborating with the U.S. military and withdraw all our troops...

On September 11th, 2001 the Twin Towers fell and the world changed. In the United States, Canada, and much of the Western world a culture of fear set in and came to dominate the next 2 decades.  This was primarily a fear of Islamic terrorism, but 9/11 also brought about a general sense of uncertainty and fear that continues to this day. For the next 20 years  our politics, media, culture, and Zeitgeist as a whole would be characterized by a strong sense of fear, often bordering on paranoia. 9/11 triggered a wave of xenophobia in both the US and Canada. Islam, immigrants, and anything seen as foreign were treated with suspicion and fear. Unfortunately this attitude never really went away. Even now Islamophobia is still a major problem . Over the last 20 years apocalyptic media has become increasingly popular, with dozens of movies depicting apocalypses and post-apocalyptic worlds. In 2005 Steven Spielberg included imagery reminiscent of 9/11 in his film adaptation of  War...