By David Swanson
When a few thousand people were murdered on 11 September, 2001, I was actually stupid enough - I kid you not - to imagine that the general public would conclude that because massive military forces, nuclear arsenals, and foreign bases had done nothing to prevent and much to provoke those crimes, the U.S. government would need to start scaling back its single biggest expense. By 12 September it was clear that the opposite course would be followed.