Bin Laden's parallel denunciations of the Saudi ruling dynasty for inviting Western forces into Saudi Arabia to ward off the predations of Saddam Hussein, while rejecting the assistance of Bin Laden's own jihadist international brigade, meant that in he was expelled and in denationalised, though Saudi money continued to find its way to al-Qaeda so long as Bin Laden did not strike within the kingdom itself.
He fled first to Sudan, where his money talked in such a poor country, and then in back to Afghanistan, where he resolved to strike at western interests which, he and Zawahiri, felt were propping up autocratic regimes throughout the Middle East.
This was the true beginning of the simple narrative myth of a defensive jihad against "Crusader-Zionist" aggression against the universal Muslim ummah. And so it might seem if one's vision was restricted to a few lurid TV images from Bosnia or Chechnya as refurbished by al-Qaeda's own media outlets. For al-Qaeda's "truths" relied upon huge distortions and massive ignorance of the world on the part of his sympathisers. In reality, Bin Laden himself was the source of aggression, with Bin Laden calling for jihadists to kill American civilians wherever they could.
A series of ever bolder terrorist strikes ensued. Each of these attacks was long in the making, relying on tight cells of terrorists all of whom had received some form of training at al-Qaeda's camps in Afghanistan or who were in some way directed by al-Qaeda.
Somewhat later, ideologically cognate groups would simply claim they had acted under al-Qaeda's general inspiration. It suited Bin Laden to claim authorship of attacks he probably had little responsibility for since it magnified his global influence. Although Bin Laden prided himself on his strategic genius, and did undoubtedly succeed in inspiring many angry young Muslims to heed him, in reality the US deposition of the Afghan Taliban government was a disaster for him and his organisation, forcing them to rely on affiliated actors whose priorities were often more local than al-Qaeda's.
Over the past nine years, core al-Qaeda has been progressively marginalised - to the point where it did not overly matter if Bin Laden was captured or killed - while relentless warfare has inclined sections of the Taliban to find an accommodation with the Kabul government.
Bin Laden's death is likely to accelerate that process. But his longer term legacy is more imponderable. For sure, Bin Laden will be regarded by future historians as one of the major symbolic villains in modern history. Purely in terms of death tolls he is not in the same class of genocidal killer as Saddam Hussein, let alone Hitler, Stalin or Mao.
Of course, in some quarters Mao remains a poster boy for a certain type of revolutionary implacability. His terrorist career clearly eclipses that of most earlier terrorists, whose victims number in single digits or low hundreds. Within a few months of the attack, the United States pulled out all of its troops from Lebanon.
The Marine barracks bombing was very much on bin Laden's mind as he plotted attacks he believed would result in the United States removing its troops from its bases in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Bush to "use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, or harbored such organizations or persons.
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda lost the best base it ever had in Afghanistan. Real estate impresario Donald Trump launched his political career with the lie that President Barack Obama wasn't an American and was secretly a Muslim. This was false, but it played well with Trump's base. Trump's presidential campaign also took place during a wave of mass casualty jihadist terrorist attacks in the West. As a result, in the run-up to the presidential election, just over half of Americans said they were "very" or "somewhat" worried they, or a member of their family, would be victims of terrorism.
Sensing a real political opportunity, Trump called for a "total and complete shutdown" of Muslim immigration to the States and asserted that many Muslims have "great hatred towards Americans.
Other polls showed terrorism as a top-two issue for Americans, with Trump holding a slight advantage over his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, on the issue. The group inflicted more direct damage on the United States in one morning than the Soviet Union had during the Cold War. But ultimately, it was a strategic failure for the organization, just as Pearl Harbor was for Imperial Japan. But now al-Qaeda has been given a new lease on life by President Joe Biden's ill-considered and hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan and the speedy takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.
To gauge the true intentions of the Taliban going forward, you only have to look at one of their key cabinet appointments earlier this week, Sirajuddin Haqqani as the acting Minster of Interior. The UN says Haqqani is part of the leadership of al-Qaeda. However, bin Laden ruled over al-Qaeda like a medieval monarch, and leaders of the group who were skeptical about the looming attacks in the United States were forced to go along with them. The strategy. He firmly believed the attacks would result in the withdrawal of American forces from the entire Middle East, which would then lead to the collapse of the US-supported Arab regimes that bin Laden despised.
It was a strategy that made little sense, as the United States would surely follow its own interests and was hardly likely to abandon its substantial role in the Middle East. But bin Laden truly believed that the US was weak, just as the former Soviet Union had been, and could only absorb a few blows. He drew inspiration from other terrorist groups that had successfully attacked American targets, such as Lebanese Hezbollah, which had bombed the Marine barracks in Beirut in , killing American Marines, sailors and soldiers.
Within a few months of the attack, the United States pulled out all of its troops from Lebanon. The Marine barracks bombing was very much on bin Laden's mind as he plotted attacks he believed would result in the United States removing its troops from its bases in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia.
Bush to "use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, or harbored such organizations or persons. We're not villains or victims -- we're people seeking a better life. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda lost the best base it ever had in Afghanistan. Impact on American politics. Real estate impresario Donald Trump launched his political career with the lie that President Barack Obama wasn't an American and was secretly a Muslim.
This was false, but it played well with Trump's base. He's on the FBI's most-wanted list and is now a key member of the Taliban's new government. Trump's presidential campaign also took place during a wave of mass casualty jihadist terrorist attacks in the West.
As a result, in the run-up to the presidential election, just over half of Americans said they were "very" or "somewhat" worried they, or a member of their family, would be victims of terrorism. Sensing a real political opportunity, Trump called for a "total and complete shutdown" of Muslim immigration to the States and asserted that many Muslims have "great hatred towards Americans.
0コメント