Who really won – America or bin Laden? The answer is as obvious as it is painful: He did.
Bin Laden’s goal was to trigger a clash of civilizations. He sought to pit radical Islam against the West, becoming a galvanizing force for Muslim militants everywhere. He gave new life to the Islamist project of imposing a global caliphate based on Shariah law. Revolutionary Islamism has tens of millions of followers, spreading like locusts across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Europe. Bin Laden may be dead, but his macabre ghost lives on.
The former Saudi millionaire (and playboy) cut his Islamist teeth in Afghanistan during the 1980s. He was deeply impressed by the Afghan Mujahedeen – Muslim holy warriors who eventually defeated the mighty Soviet army. Having humiliated one superpower, he set his sights on the more powerful one: America.
Bin Laden’s strategic ambition was to suck the United States into prolonged guerrilla wars. Being a man of the East, he understood that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. Britain, czarist Russia, the Soviet Union – their armies were broken by Afghanistan’s harsh terrain and fierce tribes. His aim was to bankrupt America, slowly bleeding us as we fought one counterinsurgency operation after another. In short, he set a trap – and we rushed headlong into it.
The difference is, though, he’s [i]dead,[/i] and hundreds of thousands of innocent people…….including the Muslims whom he would’ve had sacrificed ‘in the name of Allah,’ are going to live. This murderer is just another in a long line of Muslim fanatics who have wanted to reestablish the Caliphate over the territories that they once ruled, and to rule all of Earth…….crushing all opposition as they went. Take a good look at the scimitar……the Arabic sword…….in the Sword and Crescent Moon symbology which is used as their symbol, and pay attention to its meaning. There’s a reason why they use the scimitar……and it isn’t for peaceful purposes!
Cennydd–It is scary how alike we think!
If we lose sight of the ultimate goal of Islamic extremists and do nothing to stop them, then we’re in for a whole lot of trouble……more than we have now, believe me! We…….and the rest of Western civilization……are going to have to fight a war for our very survival, and the sooner we take aggressive and proactive measures to put an end to their jihad against us, the better. No halfway measures are going to stop them.
We need to pull [i]completely OUT[/i] of the Middle East and let them settle their differences in their own way…..much as we prefer to settle our differences in [i]our[/i] own way. All foreign aid should be eliminated and then be reestablished on a strictly controlled basis……and we can’t just select recipients of that aid on a willy-nilly basis……thinking that in return for that aid, they’ll support us. Finally, the UN needs to “grow a pair” and do what they are supposed to do: KEEP THE PEACE!
“Yet, now that he is rotting in hell….”
Mr. Kuhner obviously doesn’t really believe this line he wrote, otherwise he wouldn’t be claiming that bin Laden won.
The article makes a curious argument:
[blockquote] “But Mr. Bush made the greatest mistake of his presidency – one that will haunt America for years to come. After the fall of the Taliban, he embarked upon nation-building.” [/blockquote]
How exactly does Mr Kuhner think that the US was going to destroy the fabric of Al Qaida if it didn’t have “boots on the ground” in Afghanistan?
Its not just a matter of driving senior Al Qaida figures out of the border areas, but also the way that the US presence facilitated CIA operations in Pakistan. The most recent operation against OBL is a case in point: Both the pre-operation surveillance of the target building, and the insertion/extraction by helo were facilitated by the US presence in the neighbouring country.
[blockquote] “Bin Laden’s strategic ambition was to suck the United States into prolonged guerrilla wars.” [/blockquote]
His ambition went a lot further than that, which is relevant to this article. His primary aim was to form a new Islamic Caliphate, something which had terrible implications for the future of the world. That is another reason that the US and other western nations were in Iraq and are still in Afghanistan – not just to hunt Al Qaida, but to prevent its main aim. Hence the importance of nation-building.
Mr Kuhner doesn’t appear to have any idea about this aspect of Al Qaida.