M. Johnson, A most interesting piece.
On Jan 12, 7:39 am, "M. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote: > Osama: 10. The US: 0.by Eric Margolis > To better understand why Osama bin Laden is so far winning his struggle to > oust the western powers from the Muslim world, let us go back to 1986, when I > was covering the anti-Soviet war in then almost unknown Afghanistan. > I called on the grandly titled "Afghan Information Center" in Peshawar, > Pakistan. Peshawar was a wild and dangerous place. I called it, "Dodge City > meets the Arabian Nights" in my book on Afghanistan,War at the Top of the > World. > The information center turned out to be a drab little office filled with > mimeographed pamphlets and piles of dusty books. > The director was a short, thin man in a torn sweater named Abdullah Azzam. We > spoke at length of the anti-Soviet jihad (struggle) in Afghanistan being > waged by Afghan and Arab mujahidin. > Then, Azzam told me, "when we have driven the Communist imperialists from > Afghanistan, we will go on and drive the American imperialists from Arabia > and the rest of the Muslim world." > I was absolutely floored. Except for Communists, a notorious bunch of liars, > I had never heard anyone call my beloved America an imperialist power. In > those days, the US appeared the acme of good – in large part because its > rival, the Soviet Union, looked so wicked. > But after the USSR collapsed, absolute power absolutely corrupted > Washington’s ruling circles and drove them to seek "full spectrum domination" > of the globe and its energy resources rather than a cooperative new world > order. > Sheik Abdullah Azzam was the teacher and spiritual mentor of a young Saudi > named Osama bin Laden. Azzam gave bin Laden the blueprint for his later war > against the west. > Azzam was murdered in 1989, likely by a western intelligence service. His > pupil, Osama, launched a seemingly quixotic mission to overthrow the > western-backed dictatorships and monarchies that misruled the Muslim world, > and drive western power from the region. > Bin Laden proclaimed his grand strategy in the 1990’s. He would oust the > modern "Crusaders’ by luring the US and its allies into a series of small, > debilitating, hugely expensive wars to bleed and slowly bankrupt the US > economy, which he called America’s Achilles’ heel. > Bloody attacks would enrage the US and lure it into one quagmire after > another. > Bin Laden was dismissed by western intelligence as a crackpot and "enragé." > But both the dimwitted President Gorge W. Bush and the intelligent President > Barack Obama fell right into Osama’s carefully-laid trap. > Today, Osama’s words haunt us as we witness hysteria and chaos engulf > America’s air travel system, the war party in Washington demands the US > invade Yemen, and the drums beat for war against Iran. > US airport security officials will be even more panicked when they learn a > jihadist recently tried to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s interior minister, > Prince Nayef, by detonating a bomb secreted in his rectum. Will we soon bend > and spread for security – just like in prisons? > The American colossus continues to stumble ever deeper into the Muslim > world’s violent, tangled affairs at a time when Washington is bankrupt and > only runs on Chinese loans. In 2009, the US deficit was US $1.4 trillion. But > Washington managed to spend $200 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan > by loading the costs onto the national credit card. > American soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. US Special Forces, > air units and CIA mercenaries are involved in combat operations in Pakistan, > Somalia, Yemen, West Africa, North Africa and the Philippines. A new US base > at Djibouti is launching raids into Yemen, Somalia and northern Kenya. US > forces aided the failed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006. New US bases > are planned in oil-producing West Africa and also in Colombia. > The Red Sea littoral is America’s next major headache. Somalia’s anti-western > Shebab movement controls much of that nation’s south and center. Yemen is a > hotbed of jihadist activity that increasingly threatens neighboring Saudi > Arabia, a vital American ally. Somali pirates could turn from plunder to > striking at other western interests. > As soon as the US or its satraps crush one anti-western jihadist group, > another springs up somewhere else. > Washington is quietly engineering the breakup of troubled Sudan, Africa’s > largest nation, in order to dominate South Sudan’s important oil resources > and undermine the regime in Khartoum which Washington has marked for > termination. > Even Egypt is growing shaky. The US-backed Mubarak military dictatorship that > has ruled the Arab world’s most populous nation with an iron hand since 1981 > faces a succession struggle once the 82-year-old pharaoh is gone. > Al-Qaida is no longer the tiny organization founded by Osama bin Laden that > never numbered more than 300 hard-core members. It has morphed into a > worldwide movement of like-minded but independent, revolutionary, > anti-American groups that share Osama’s militant philosophy. This is > precisely the kind of "asymmetrical warfare" the Pentagon has so long feared. > Ominously, a 2006 World Public Opinion poll showed large majorities in four > leading Muslim nations that are key US allies, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and > Indonesia (a third of the Muslim world’s population), believe the US is > determined to destroy or undermine Islam. They support attacks on American > targets. This was an ominous warning for the United States. > Remember all the claims by the Bush administration that Osama bin Laden was > on the run, or out of business? He is still very much in business, and so far > making his western enemies look foolish and > bumbling.http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/osama--the-us-.aspx
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