Osama.

This is coolbert:

From Mr. Fred Reed an analysis I cannot disagree with.

Merely considering the perspective of the "cost-benefit basis" alone Osama bin Laden ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL MEN IN ALL OF HISTORY?

NOT for the best but undeniably so ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL?

As stated by Fred in a manner totally unique to himself:

"For a few hundred thousand dollars and an army of a couple of dozen, bin Laden stunningly humiliated America on international television, turned the country into a police state frightened of everything, inspired abrogation of its Constitution, and sucked the country into unending wars. On a cost-benefit basis, it was astonishing. He up-throttled national decline and has Americans hopping barefoot in airports while recordings on subways tell us to watch each other and report 'suspicious behavior.'”

Consider alone that the amount of money as estimated to have been spent by Al Qaeda to bomb the two embassies in east African was about $1,500 USD TOTAL!!

Expenditure for the 9/11 operation probably greater but as Fred states in all likelihood not more than several hundred thousand USD!

The United States since 9/11 having engaged now in two wars [Iraq and Afghan] with a new war in progress against the Islamic State, ASTRONOMICALLY FAR GREATER AMOUNTS OF MONEY [not counting lives lost] SPENT IN RESPONSE TO THE GWOT WITH NO END YET IN SIGHT!!

Those two wars in Iraq and /Afghan [and now against ISIL] having cost in the TRILLIONS of dollars to the American taxpayer [that exact amount the bill of which perhaps not even fully calculable] the dollar "cost-benefit basis" extraordinarily lopsided in favor of Osama, think in THE MILLIONS!!!

IN THE ENTIRE FIVE THOUSAND YEAR RECORDED HISTORY OF WARFARE THIS FINANCIAL ASPECT AND STRICTLY THAT TOTALLY UNIQUE?

coolbert.