Fighting the monsters we create

First the USA had a bit of a problem with a certain German dictator by the name of A. Hitler, and his brand of fascism. To deal with him they made a pact with the devil; they made an alliance with Josef Stalin, supreme leader of the totalitarian communist USSR. They supplied him with weaponry, airplanes, ammunition etc. and together they beat the nazis.

But they had created a monster, and soon the US had a bit of a problem with the Soviets, and the cold war started, and when the USSR invaded Afghanistan, once more the USA made a pact with the devil. This time around they started arming the Afghan mujahideen, and encouraged muslims from around the world to come to Afghanistan to join the fight against the Russian infidel in the name of Islam.

The USA won this one as well, and the USSR retreated from Afghanistan and ultimately collapsed, but the USA has once again created a monster: muslim militants united, also known as al qaida.

And now for the past 10 years since 9/11 (which was little more than a rabid dog turning around to bite its former master) the USA is fighting this monster with the help of NATO friends. Main battlefield Afghanistan; with a major diversion in Iraq.

So there were are: 30 years later. Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan in 2009, fighting the monster the USA created to defeat the Soviets. The images from 1979 and 2009 are eerily similar.

Afghanistan. Soviet Army 1979 and Dutch Army 2009.

I just wonder what monster the USA is creating this time, in their fight to get rid of the militant muslims...? The more paranoid among us would claim that the new monster is the slow turning of the Western world into a Police State. Exaggerated border controls, body searching, widespread internet and telephone surveillance, individuals' privacy made sub-servant to security, liberties under pressure. I detect the faint smell of fascism. Perhaps that is the new Monster...? Fascism Made in the USA.... Full circle....

Other paranoids may claim that the new Monster is the privatized security industry that has been created. Enormous well-armed and well-informed entities within the western world, on which our normal democratic institutions have little grip. Perhaps the next war is a civil war? Citizens against the Private Security Forces?