#2. Osama bin Laden did not attack us due to our freedoms...the fact that the U.S. chose, all by its terrified self, to begin walking--from 9/11--a path of ever diminishing freedoms is just icing on the cake.
Osama financed an independent anti-Capitalistic idea to attack the World Trade Centers and seats of U.S. government, as these are seen--by a great many individuals living in 2nd and 3rd World nations--to be the strength of our Imperialistic economic and military behavior.
The U.S. mans foreign military bases all over the world--imagine if China were to establish a military base on Oʻahu, Key Largo or Martha's Vineyard.
Our capitalistic drive has turned the world into one big source of McJobs. We control the lifestyles of 3rd Worlders working for peanuts and no benefits in our overseas factories. We foul their environments. We demand that they give us their oil for much less than the European market.
No, it wasn't our freedoms. It was our abuse of these freedoms. We are a target of terrorist attacks not because they are Muslim, not because we are Christians, Americans or relatively free.
We are a terrorist target because we use our military might to back the exploitation of foreign lands and lifestyle purely for our own luxury purposes. We have robbed nations of their sovereign right to establish and maintain their own socio-economic cultures. They now eat our burgers, drink our cola, dress in our gangsta clothing and rap-out songs of street violence.
If this were happening to you, maybe you wouldn't attack...but you'd certainly know someone who would--who'd trained for it--and who's just now waiting for their chance. See Less
Osama financed an independent anti-Capitalistic idea to attack the World Trade Centers and seats of U.S. government, as these are seen--by a great many individuals living in 2nd and 3rd World nations--to be the strength of our Imperialistic economic and military behavior.
The U.S. mans foreign military bases all over the world--imagine if China were to establish a military base on Oʻahu, Key Largo or Martha's Vineyard.
Our capitalistic drive has turned the world into one big source of McJobs. We control the lifestyles of 3rd Worlders working for peanuts and no benefits in our overseas factories. We foul their environments. We demand that they give us their oil for much less than the European market.
No, it wasn't our freedoms. It was our abuse of these freedoms. We are a target of terrorist attacks not because they are Muslim, not because we are Christians, Americans or relatively free.
We are a terrorist target because we use our military might to back the exploitation of foreign lands and lifestyle purely for our own luxury purposes. We have robbed nations of their sovereign right to establish and maintain their own socio-economic cultures. They now eat our burgers, drink our cola, dress in our gangsta clothing and rap-out songs of street violence.
If this were happening to you, maybe you wouldn't attack...but you'd certainly know someone who would--who'd trained for it--and who's just now waiting for their chance. See Less
1. Osama was created by Pakistani and Saudi secret services, which were in cahoots with the USA.
2. The idea that the CIA was directly involved is not so important as the reality that the CIA was instigating, advising, and sometimes directing the Anti-Soviet effort, and so indirectly Osama Bin Laden was working for the CIA.
3. Directly he was and is, in bed with Pakistani and Saudi Agents.
Maybe sometimes with official government and other-times with rogue elements of the government but it is misdirection to say that Pakistan had no knowledge of his presence there, because their secret service keeps tabs on everything and did so even more so 5 years ago when he first moved to where he was found.
The honest thing to say is that perhaps the current government has no clue, but this government was put in place when the military stood down from direct dictatorship a few years ago. That senior officials know nothing of this should only be embarrassing to the Pakistani people, because that is an indication of who really is still in control.
But of course we can expect neither honesty, nor journalistic integrity right now, because our governments have set things up so we only hear what the governments are willing to tell us as filtered through a press that is increasingly credulous when it counts while continuing to be sensationalist where it is total distraction. The reality remains that Bin Laden was preaching from a Wahabi/Moslem Brotherhood tradition not far from Saudi Orthodoxy, and that Al Qaeda was and is funded by Rogue elements of the Saudi rulers as well as from other quarters. The reality also remains that, nevertheless, this intervention shows that these guys aren't far from being rolled up. See Less
2. The idea that the CIA was directly involved is not so important as the reality that the CIA was instigating, advising, and sometimes directing the Anti-Soviet effort, and so indirectly Osama Bin Laden was working for the CIA.
3. Directly he was and is, in bed with Pakistani and Saudi Agents.
Maybe sometimes with official government and other-times with rogue elements of the government but it is misdirection to say that Pakistan had no knowledge of his presence there, because their secret service keeps tabs on everything and did so even more so 5 years ago when he first moved to where he was found.
The honest thing to say is that perhaps the current government has no clue, but this government was put in place when the military stood down from direct dictatorship a few years ago. That senior officials know nothing of this should only be embarrassing to the Pakistani people, because that is an indication of who really is still in control.
But of course we can expect neither honesty, nor journalistic integrity right now, because our governments have set things up so we only hear what the governments are willing to tell us as filtered through a press that is increasingly credulous when it counts while continuing to be sensationalist where it is total distraction. The reality remains that Bin Laden was preaching from a Wahabi/Moslem Brotherhood tradition not far from Saudi Orthodoxy, and that Al Qaeda was and is funded by Rogue elements of the Saudi rulers as well as from other quarters. The reality also remains that, nevertheless, this intervention shows that these guys aren't far from being rolled up. See Less
Or a CIA-like organization created and supported him. His profile is as a recruit, not a leader with an agenda. Rather than a concerted plan, each act of violence sent a message and the messages are probably related in that they were in response to some other ongoing event.
2. Bin Laden attacked us because of our freedoms.
This never made any sense. How do you win? Why would a recruit blow themselves up? We now know he was an avid consumer of Pepsi and Coke, junk food. Soda, sugar water, is one of our most useless exports, yet many of the attacks worldwide were of a commercial nature. He was no idealist setting examples.
3. Al-Qaeda’s ideology has nothing to do with Islam.
We know from the Civil War, there are Causes and there are reasons and they may not be closely related. The Cause of the terrorists quickly became a defense of Islam. Most Americans (99%) knew nothing about Islam, let alone want to attack it. The Cause was a good recruiting tool to find zealots that would blow themselves up, much like the Civil War had men charging into withering rifle fire with grape and canister raking the open field. We overlooked the fact that many in the Middle East send their kids to school in America or Britain. Lately we have seen Middle East uprisings for the same types of freedoms. By whom were his children educated?
4. Ayman al-Zawahiri, not bin Laden, is the real brains of al-Qaeda.
A doctor? It is more likely the head is a military person that uses body counts as a tactic. Why did Bush lose interest in OBL as a target?
5. Bin Laden’s death is symbolically important but irrelevant to the war on terror.
Hopefully the intelligence community will take a deep breath and review all that has happened, in light of OBL's location and accessibility to the military in Pakistan. Obama made an important intelligence decision when he decided on a precision raid to establish identity and information collection over wholesale bombing. See Less