2003-08-15

Terror Futures: Asking For (More) Trouble

Just when you thought you had had seen the worst from the airheads in the George W Bush administration, you come up to your ears with indignation with another one of their harebrained schemes.

A secret team working for the American defence minister Donald Rumsfeld had created a futures market based on dreamed-up acts of terrorism. Indignant lawmakers in the US had difficulty convincing people that the news about the market was not a hoax. Though the plan was subsequently aborted, private exchanges plan to take it up from where the Pentagon had left off.

Terror futures will have disastrous consequences for the US. If they were to gain critical mass with large trading volumes, then actual terrorist acts might be committed so that bets can be realised. Such scenarios are not unimaginable. Even with 911 tragedy, unusually huge bets were placed on future options of airline stocks. Apparently, some people knew airline stocks would take a dive after the bombing.

George W Bush provided millions of dollars to the Taliban and they returned the favour with the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Did the tragedy make the Bush administration any smarter? No, they want to play with even more terror. They thought it worthwhile to exploit the collect grief of 911 for private profit by invading Iraq. Now, they have found another way to insult the memory of the victims. One can only give up and say, "God save America."