1979-1989 (primarily Reagan) – The United States and Middle East have a common enemy: a secularist Soviet Union that is bent on spreading and alleviating the “opiate of the masses” – religion. Osama comes to Afghanistan where his family’s financial holdings give him the capital he needs to make a name for himself. Although it is popular for Liberals to say “who do you think trained and funded Bin Ladin,” the report indicates
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Bin Ladin and his comrades had their own sources of support and training, and they received little or no assistance from the United States (p. 56). (footnote: In his memoir, Ayman al Zawahiri contemptuously rejects the claim that the Arab mujahideen were financed (even “one penny”) or trained by the United States.) Liberals love to see the United States as suffering the bitter fruits of justice – they like to see irony in places where, according to this report, it doesn’t exist. The US, does however, fund other parts of the Afghan fight against the Soviet Union.
1990 (Bush) – Saudi Arabia sides with the United States and the international coalition in Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait. Bin Ladin had offered his mujahideen to do the task, and was rejected – much to his anger.
1991-1996 (Bush, mostly Clinton) – Bin Ladin moves to Sudan where he operates his international network of recruitment and training. Recruitment centers include places like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Tuscon, Arizona, and most of his training camps are in Africa.
1993 (Clinton) – The US withdraws from Somolia in defeat. Bin Ladin, who’s forces are credited for most of the attacks against US forces including “Black Hawk Down,” uses this victory to bolster recruitment. Al Queda grows in popularity and strength.
1993 (Clinton) – The first World Trade Center bombing.
1994 (Clinton) - Saudi Arabia freezes his bank account and revokes his citizenship. Bin Ladin is a man without a country.
1995 (Clinton) – A car bomb outside a Saudi-US facility kills seven, including five Americans.
1995 (Clinton) – Plot to down 12 Commercial Airliners over the ocean is foiled.
1996 (Clinton) – Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia attacked with a massive truck bomb. 19 Americans killed, 372 wounded.
1996 (Clinton) – Bin Ladin moves to Afghanistan where he finds shelter, and support from the Taliban government.
1998 (Clinton) – Osama declares war on the US in a fatwa (normally an interpretation of Islamic law by Islamic scholars, although none that signed this one were such scholars) calling for “the murder of any American, anywhere on earth, as the ‘individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.”
1998 (Clinton) – In an interview with ABC, Osama states: “We believe that the worst thieves in the world today and the worst terrorists are the Americans. Nothing could stop you except perhaps retaliation in kind. We do not have to differentiate between military or civilian. As far as we are concerned, they are all targets,” (47). [/i]He continued, “If the present injustice continues…, it will inevitably move the battle to American soil,” (48, ellipses in original).[/i]. And liberals blame Bush for missing a document that said “Bin Laden determined to attack on US Soil”…
1998 (Clinton) – Bin Laden makes good and attacks US soil in Africa. Two US embassies are destroyed: In Nairobi, 12 Americans and 201 others are killed. 5000 injured. In Dar es Salaam, 11 killed, none Americans. When asked about killing fellow Muslims, Osama says, “when it becomes apparent that it would be impossible to repel these Americans with out assaulting them, even if this involved the killing of Muslims, this is permissible under Islam,” (70).
9/11, 2001 (Bush) – A plan that was first laid out in 1996 (Clinton) is executed. Four jets are hijacked. Two crash into the World Trade Center which collapses. One into the Pentagon, and one into a field in Pennsylvania.
This is all that is contained in the chapter – leaving out of course, the USS Cole (Clinton). My point here isn’t to place blame, but to examine the consequences of tactics. Clinton had an approach of relative proportional response: you blow up our embassies, we’ll bomb your abandoned warehouses. During the period between 1996 and 2001, it is estimated that 10-20,000 young men went through Osama’s training camps in Afghanistan (67).
Kerry, of course, wants to return to the golden years of Clinton’s international popularity. But that popularity had consequences as it prevented the US from taking dramatic actions. Clinton knew al Queda was a threat, but he didn’t have the diplomatic fortitude to do anything about it. Bush does.
We Can Undercut Osama’s Power
Many liberals I’ve talked to say that the American system – democracy and capitalism – just can’t work in the Middle East. For them, the Middle Easterner is a different type of human, unable to rule himself. But the Middle East has a proud tradition of scientific, economic and political prosperity. That tradition was built on intellectual and economic freedom. Trade flourished, and ideas were encouraged. There were opportunities.
The report states that Bin Ladin garners support from the region by “promising to restore pride of people who consider themselves victims.” Wait a second… Osama Bin Ladin is just an extreme version of Jesse Jackson and the Victicrats? Consider the following passaged:
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[Bin Ladin] repeatedly calls his followers to ebrace martyrdom since “the walls of oppression and humiliation cannot be demolished except in a rain of bullets.” Okay, I’m not saying that Jaskson and Bin Ladin are the same man – they obviously advocate very different policies of action. But this might lend some insight into why the bleeding liberal heart finds sympathy with those who mean to attack us. Their mentality is one of victimization so the narrative of the terrorists makes sense. If we are a victim of racism/classism/agism/sexism surely it’s not a stretch to think that they are a victim of us.
Of course, I think the Right has a healthier approach to this situation. There is something to be said for personal accountability – both at home and abroad. The solution to the problems in the Middle East is a recognition that they control their own destiny – that many of the problems they incur are a result of internal strife between secularists and Islamic fundamentalists, between different sects of Islam, between different nationalities.
But liberation is not impossible. It’s easy to scapegoat when you have no say in your own government. And when you expect that government to take care of you. The left is designing entitlement, the dangers of which are evident:
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In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, an unprecedented flood of wealth led the then largely unmodernized oil states to attempt to shortcut decades of development. They funded huge infrastructure projects, vastly expanded education, and created socialized welfare programs. These programs established a wide spread feeling of entitlement without a corresponding sense of social obligation (53). There’s another vice though, and that is legitimate economic desperation. Afghanistan was easily ruled by the Taliban because it was impoverished and war-torn. Where there is poverty, there will be social strife.
Democracy and capitalism goes a long way to solving these problems. Democracy revitalizes civil responsibility. It gives people the ability to improve their system while removing their ability to blame someone else for failure. Capitalism improves their quality of life which makes it more difficult for extremism or tyranny to gain a foothold.
Yes, the Commission Report is non-partisan, but I think it makes a pretty strong case for the Bush Doctrine in the Middle East. Attack terrorism where it starts – not in the Terror camps, but in the regimes that thrive off of desperation.
One final note. The chapter chronicles three meetings between Bin Ladin and Iraqi officials. Two were initiated by Bin Ladin, one by Saddam. Although none of the meetings produced any provable agreement, it was only a matter of time. As the report notes:
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The reports describe friendly contacts and indicate some common themes in both sides’ hatred of the United States
If the enemy of your enemy is your friend, it was only a matter of time before Bin Ladin found Saddam Hussein a useful ally in his declared war against the United States.
And Kerry – before he decided to run for office – agreed.