Bin Laden’s Struggle for Relevance
Bin Laden’s taking of credit for the attempted crotch bombing on Christmas Day is a sign of desperation, an attempt to preserve what little is left of his image of being divinely guided and powerful in an almost inhuman manner. There is no evidence that bin Laden had any role in the plot, aside from obviously setting up the original al-Qaeda network, but he has to take credit for something at this point.
Bin Laden’s message is more than the product of a large ego. It is part of a strategy for survival. Al-Qaeda has been unable to repeat an attack on the scale of 9/11, and since those attacks, U.S. forces have overthrown the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, numerous Muslim countries have taken a harder line against it, and the group has suffered a dramatic drop in popularity as a result of its failures and its killing of eight times as many Muslims as non-Muslims.
Confidence in bin Laden and Sunni jihadists as a whole is dropping as well, particularly since the turnaround in Iraq. Al-Qaeda’s inability to spark a popular uprising or anything remotely resembling the resistance of the mujahideen that fought the Soviets is a potentially crippling blow to its prestige. This makes it all the more important that it creates a mini-state in Pakistan, makes visible advances in Afghanistan, and seizes Somalia, Yemen, or some other territory. Dr. al-Fadl, the former mentor of Ayman al-Zawahiri, has viciously criticized al-Qaeda for its tactics, even going so far as to say it is not acting in accordance with Allah’s will or it wouldn’t have brought such misery to the Muslim world and suffered defeats.
The failure of al-Qaeda and the Sunni jihadists, particularly those that kill civilians and use suicide bombers, is leaving open a window for two forces to emerge: moderates and the Iranian regime and its proxies. There are those Muslims, like those marching on the streets of Tehran, who point to al-Qaeda and the failures of tyrannical governments to provide for their people as proof that the entire ideology of radical Islam needs to be done away with. Then there are those still committed to armed jihad, but have lost faith in the Sunni extremists. For them, Iran is filling the void as a more credible leader of the fight against the West’s so-called oppression.
Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com, national security advisor to the Christian Action Network, and an intelligence analyst with the Asymmetrical Warfare and Intelligence Center (AWIC). He can be contacted at TDCAnalyst@aol.com.
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Hmmm…nothing like a good martyrdom to increase Bin Laden’s standing!
One can wish.
Americans put excessive importance to the existence of Osama Bin Laden. Somebody keeps his image alive just to profit from the anti-terrorist budgets (Saudis, CIA, Taliban, British, media, conservatives?). I think he died many years ago, the Media has kept him alive. He is no different from Elvis or any current media fodder. If he’s alive, the Bin Laden family has extensive connections and plenty of money. This whole thing smells more than a stinking goat.
I wouldn’t be surprised someone would copyright and start the Bin Laden terror franchise . . . before the competition takes over.
Bin Laden should get pod casts of Chris Matthews, for some pointers.
Osama may have lost some credibility in the western press but does it matter to his true believer followers? Are the Jihadists still willing to strap one on and become smart bombs for the loudspeaker? The Baghad Bob Award can go out to Osama’s play for air time as well as certain other western politicians who advocate for new age ideology in the face of reality.
Obama will allow al qaeda to regain its footing.
From “I’m Dead (But I Don’t Know It)” by Randy Newman:
“I pass the houses of the dead
They’re calling me to join their group
But I stagger on instead
Dear God, sweet God
Protect me from the truth, hey
I’m dead but I don’t know it
He’s dead, he’s dead
I’m dead but I don’t know
He’s dead, he’s dead
I’m dead but I don’t know it
He’s dead, he’s dead
Please don’t tell me so”
Next case?
two term shadow president john fitzgerald kerry-kennedy is spending weekends at his secret ops base in pokistan hunting son of laden. he is regularly joined by secretary of state clinton-kennedy who almost joined the marines and prefers not to oursource as well.
Currently there is only one land route supply line to the troops in Afghanistan. The current American qualitative advantage over the enemy comes at a high hydro carbon technological price: no one want’s to loose their trillion dollar investments in Johnny and Susie in a real war. The the low tech enemy is dying to blow us up on no frill flights to Frisco, flying in on diversity visas. We currently use 40 billion (that is not a mistake) gallons of diesel a year in our economy. I suppose relevance all depends on where you sit in the food supply chain. And, of, course in our new age economy when it comes to managing risks “this times its different.”
8. The case you’re trying to be make would be much easier if it were coherent.
Yeah, your right, I should have added a few sentences to the incoherency of facts. After Cortez burned his boats, his troops did fight better against the Aztecs. They had no choice.
The guy is dead and has been for a long time! Any video you see is old stuff all edited and so is all the audio you hear, and then you have text which any idiot could write and claim you were him!
I put no faith in anything that says Bin Laden said it or videoed it or Tweeted it or Burped it or anything because it is all garbage!
Steve is right: bin Laden’s dead – courtesy of the U.S. Air Force over Tora Bora, December 2001.
If author Ryan Mauro or anyone else disagrees, simply produce bin Laden. And not as an audio tape, or a grainy, fake but accurate, obviously phony video taken from fifteen feet away. Have him do an interview with the BBC with plenty of close up face shots, discussing current events.
There is every reason for bin Laden to agree: his appearance would instantly fire up millions of followers in the Muslim world with a huge morale boost. He could raise an army, and a fortune, literally overnight. There’s only one reason bin Laden wouldn’t do an interview…
He’s dead.
Who cares if Bin Laden is dead or alive ? I don’t believe anything said about him is relevant. On the other hand , this topic is great and I wish some high powered writer would write an essay about relevance .
In this 60 minute fame-cycle world there are some people whom we should remember for being relevant;briefly.
Comedian Bill Mahr. I expect this guy to make a comeback once Obama is gone.
Colon Powell. General of the unimportant . His opinion is more worthless than mine.
Special Prosecutor , Paul Fitzgerald . oops, Patricia .er Patreck Fitzsimmons, You know the guy who shot Liberty Valence , er.ah,got Libby plame . Or Joe Wilson. Fearless . tenacious COMPLETELY NON PARTISAN. He is still on the job hunting down those criminals in Chicago. He got all the phone taps and document evidence and I suppose he will be announcing indictments any day now. Probably around 2020 when his investigation is complete. Irrelevance doesn’t even scratch this guys resume.
Bin Laden is a historical footnote, and its only Old Media’s fascination with contrived melodrama that keeps him in the news.
Bin laden may, or may not be alive. What matters is the consistent terrorists, and hate speech we see every day or two from the religion of peace.
The southern border still allows illegal alien anchor baby mothers into this country. How many other than Mexicans from the middle east come through there? How many Mosques help them in the border states? Then push them northward?
Those terrorists we have in our jails now still want to murder you, and I. Their hearts are twisted with hate through a false religion that worships death.
Just wait a day, or two. Then remember what I wrote here. All real Americans should have your gear ready to put on, and your weapons ready to go for terrorism, illegal alien crime, and acts of G-d. Do not want for the government to come help you. They have stabed us in the back by allowing millions of illegal aliens into this country, and placing us in hock to the CHICOMMS.
BZO, or Die!
There is zip and nada real evidence to indicate that he’s dead, and Obama and the military aren’t exactly acting like he is. And he could retire knowing that he’s caused more death and destruction, directly and indirectly, to the U.S. than anyone else and has gotten away with it (much thanks to friggin Bush on that). So far. Until he’s killed or captured, he’s going to remain a powerful symbol for those don’t exactly have the U.S.’s best interests in mind.
Bin Laden disavowed responsibility for the 911 attack. A fact too basic for the willfully ignorant to swallow. But then reality is irritating to the sheeple. Rather they bleat the storyline of the ruling elite caring deeply about the working man’s plight. People vote against themselves.
Repub preference for emotional engagement over reasonable argument has allowed the GOP to blind the constituency to their own real interests. They know how to stoke up resentment against the patronizing liberal elite, all those do-gooders who assume they know what poor people ought to be thinking.
Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channeling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America’s poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest. Voters have become blinded to their real interests. Whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different: They receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining.
It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy.