Bin Laden's Latest Video

The occupation of Iraq is the greatest recruiting tool al Qaeda has going. Al Qaeda today has metastasized into a thousand independent groups. In recent years bin Laden has been articulating an ideology that combines fundamentalist Islam with a kind of Leninist vanguard theory. The secular language of revolution has been replaced with Islamist rhetoric but the anti-imperialist edge remains.

The current struggle is not a "Clash of Civilizations" as Samuel Huntington predicted, nor is it the product of rejecting the globalized utopia that Thomas Friedman promised. At times it seems like a global struggle between stateless corporations and stateless terrorist organizations. On one side is Halliburton and Blackwater and an increasingly privatized U.S. military, while on the other side is a hydra-headed dragon of anti-imperialist Islamists. Both groups will use governments to serve their interests where possible, but neither party depends on traditional forms of power. The neo-liberal economic "shock therapy" that Noami Klein identifies has spawned an anti-capitalist jihad.

In his latest video, Osama bin Laden said:

"Despite America being the greatest economic power and possessing the most powerful and up-to-date military arsenal as well; and despite it spending on this war and its army more than the entire world spends on its armies; and despite it being the major state influencing the policies of the world, as if it has a monopoly on the unjust right of veto; despite all of this, 19 young men were able -- by the grace of Allah, the Most High -- to change the direction of its compass."

Following the September 11th attacks we've seen the Bush Administration withdraw from the Geneva Conventions, suspend habeas corpus, embrace torture as official policy, construct secret gulags, crimp civil liberties, expand Executive power, launch invasions of sovereign nations, and alienate millions of people. Worse still, in 2004, the Bush-Rove campaign strategy of scaring voters concerned with "security" by inflating the terrorist threat had the side-effect of pumping up al Qaeda's reputation. "People of America," bin Laden continues,

"The world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq, for people have recently come to know that, after several years of the tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped. Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there, which has led to the vast majority of you being afflicted with disappointment. . . . [Y]ou permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a clear mandate from you -- your full knowledge and consent -- to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan."

This statement means we are all targets no matter what we think of Bush's policies.

Bin Laden also compared Brezhnev's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s that helped bring down the Soviet Union with Bush's occupation of Iraq today. "The mistakes of Brezhnev," he said, "are being repeated by Bush, who -- when asked about the date of his withdrawing of forces from Iraq -- said in effect that the withdrawal will not be during his reign, but rather, during the reign of the one who succeeds him." He also claimed that after the invasion, America's "reputation worsened, its prestige was broken globally, and it was bled dry economically."

If countering al Qaeda is going to be the central organizing principle of American foreign policy for decades to come, as Cheney and his allies keep telling us, then we should take bin Laden's words seriously. The corporate news media, including columnists like Maureen Dowd, simply dismiss his latest statement as the ranting of a madman and call for his murder. But like everything else associated with the "war on terror" we oversimplify things at our own peril. The role played by U.S. policy in Iraq in strengthening al Qaeda should be the subject of reasoned and vigorous debate as we mark the sixth anniversary of 9-11.

When General David Petraeus testifies to Congress this week he should face tough questions about whether or not the Iraq occupation has created more terrorists. And if it has created more terrorists, he must be asked: What is the point of continuing it?

Comments

[Javani]

"with a kind of Leninist vanguard theory."

Yes, though the Qu'ran is a source of the theory to. Jihadism isn't by nature "anti-imperialist" but imperialist, and unabashedly so, though in target languages like English they might hint at "defensive jihad". Osama's call to Islam is a predicate to a rationale of offensive jihad.

Marxist-Leninism and Islamism share fundamental features, such as the call for permanent revolution/jihad. It can share much with Maoism. The Taliban, "The Students", in function, was inspired by the destructive force of the Cultural Revolution's sudent cadres, the Red Guards.

Osama is not "against" Capitalism, never has been, despite his picking up some lingo that he thinks appeals to Western audiences. Distaste for interest-bearing loans, "mortgages", is something in the Islamic world is not contrary to Capitalism but in line with Qu'ranic restrictions.

[snaggster]

Bin Laden has no credibility and uses no logic. The US unjustly influences world policy, but we're all targets because we re-elected King George W? Where's the justice in that for the 50% of us that voted against him?
He's a murderer.

Cheney has even less credibility. Another mass murderer (for profit). Let's not let him shape the debate about our "organizing principle of American foreign policy".

[bookish]

Remember fat Osama of the purported 2002 bin Ladin video? So swollen that there was speculation that he had kidney disease?

For a discussion of the provenance of the latest video release, go to Chris Floyd's blog Empire Burlesque, the post of 9/10/07 entitled Karma Chameleon. Study up on the SITE Institute, and marvel at their ability to scoop Al Queda itself.

[AnotherunhappyDemocrat]

Sir, here is the main problem with your argument: it is grounded in reality and makes sense! This country gave up reality-based thinking at least four years ago. And don't expect most of our Democrats to pose the question we want asked this week. That would require a collective spine, one that they don't seem to have.

Now that said, thousands if not hundreds of thousands of us will be in DC on Saturday, demanding an end to this war. Do you think any of our leaders will hear us?