-Caveat Lector- From http://www.iht.com/articles/33456.htm }}}>Begin Copyright © 2001 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com Military Reprisals Play Into bin Laden's Strategy Anthony Sampson IHT Monday, September 24, 2001 LONDON What did Osama bin Laden - or whoever was the master-mind - really hope to achieve by destroying the World Trade Center? Our sense of outrage must not prevent us realizing that he must have planned this terrifying act, not as an end in itself, but as part of a much broader strategy against his enemy. And we know enough about Mr. bin Laden to know that his first concern is his own country of Saudi Arabia. It was not Israel which provoked the ferocity of his fundamentalist crusade: it was the American military presence in Saudi Arabia in the Gulf War 10 years ago, when Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Saudi King had to ask the Americans to defend the kingdom. He saw the Americans as corrupting and defiling the true Islamic faith of the founder of his country, King Saud, who had been the hero of the fundamentalists. Mr. bin Laden has been determined ever since to restore Saudi Arabia to its previous role, as the guardian of that austere faith and the sacred places of Islam. It is obvious why he chose the twin towers as the prime target - for the second time - for they provided the most visible symbol of American capitalism which he hated; and no spectacle could achieve more publicity in the world's media than their collapse. But he must also have known that it would precipitate an angry response from Americans, and a clamor for reprisals. Indeed, this was surely his next objective: to provoke a display of American military might across the world. And so far his plan has worked well, as the American fleet sails towards the Gulf, while British warships were long ago scheduled for maneuvers off Oman. The western fleets will provide just the kind of image which will inflame the Saudi fundamentalists who felt so humiliated by the Gulf War. Among all the reports from Pakistan, A fghanistan or the Middle East, few have emerged from Saudi Arabia. But in that autocratic country no news can mean bad news. Visitors report a widening gap between the Saudi elite, well-educated and English-speaking, and the growing numbers of Saudi unemployed who feel thoroughly excluded. And there have been ominous reports of Saudi dissidents demonstrating against Americans, and of soldiers praising Osama bin Laden - as opposed to his rich, respectable brothers who have been close to the Saudi royals. Nothing could be more worrying to the Saudi royal family than a new rebellion by militant fundamentalists inside their country. And if the Saudi fundamentalists were to succeed, nothing could be more dangerous to western capitalism; for they could cut off huge oil supplies and deprive industrial countries of their most crucial lifeline. It is hardly possible that Osama bin Laden does not have this eventual prospect in mind. He was brought up in Saudi Arabia where, as he saw it, the oil billions were undermining the purity of Islam and corrupting the ruli ng class including his own family; and he has since been able to see all the vulnerabilities of the West, whether through is own expensive education, or through his family construction business, or through working with th e CIA in Afghanistan. The ambition to undermine global capitalism will not be confined to Saudi militant fundamentalists: it will be shared by millions of destitute people across the developing world who have felt humiliated and impoverished b y the relentless domination of the West. They will see the thousands of dead victims in Manhattan as unimportant compared to the millions who have been killed, maimed or uprooted in countries devastated by wars for which they blame Americans. And for many Arabs, Africans and Asians who have been made to feel that they are hopeless, incompetent and marginal, the demolition of the twin towers with such lethal efficiency must inevitably bring some sense of pride: That they have at last achieved something that no westerner thought they were capable of, and which compels the world to take note of them Westerners have so far been unable to look beyond the immediate atrocity and provocation, to think more carefully about the root causes of the terrorism. We in the West may be too busy portraying the terrorists as cowards and fanatics to realize that we are up against a religious movement which operates at a deeper level than hijacks and mass murder; and which is more likely to be stimulated than intimidated by the arrival of western warships in the Gulf. Anthony Sampson, author of "The Seven Sisters" and "The Arms Bazaar," contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune. 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