> Where exactly would such “evidence” come from? Do you think the CEO of Raytheon would ever utter such a statement even if it were 100% true? Just some exampl

> Where exactly would such “evidence” come from? Do you think the CEO of Raytheon would ever utter such a statement even if it were 100% true? Just some examples: a leak or confession. People do sometimes have changes of heart. But until you can actually provide evidence, you're just making up "facts" that are convenient to you. Also, the CEO of Raytheon is very unlikely to be the person that determined what the "war on terror" was meant to do. > I fail to see how anyone could believe that bombing people from the sky and invading a couple countries would win over favor from potential terrorists. We should’ve... That failing is yours. There seems to be a lot of hindsight bias there, as well as some weird misunderstandings. > Now, one could argue honestly that our leaders are just complete idiots. I just happen to think they knew exactly what we were doing. It's far more likely that "our leaders" were high on "end of history" idealism, and spurred to hasty action by a traumatic attack, and are nearly as unable to accurately predict how a complex world will behave as the rest of us.