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June 19, 2013
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 Bin Laden’s Unintended LegacyPosted on Sep 6, 2011
Ten years on, Osama bin Laden, were he not at the bottom of the sea, could be reasonably satisfied with what he has accomplished. He has not forced the United States to pull its troops out of the Islamic states. Quite the opposite. There are hundreds of thousands more there now than in 2001, in Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq and Afghanistan, and present indications suggest that they may not leave until driven out—which could happen. Eventually, it will happen, notwithstanding current Defense and State Department official strategy documents, which envisage American efforts of unlimited duration to remake the area’s nations “on the American model” as Condoleezza Rice wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine in 2008. But he did get them out of his own country, Saudi Arabia. Withdrawing the American air bases from Saudi Arabia was one of the first military-political measures to follow the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Saudi government had been asking for the withdrawal of the bases, which were considered politically damaging to Saudi rule, ever since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, for which they originally were deployed. The Saudis had been saying “please,” but the Pentagon apparently believed that it was convenient to have the bases there indefinitely (or permanently) and ignored Saudi nagging. It took the destruction of the World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon to get Washington’s attention. There is an old Southern story about what’s necessary to get the attention of a mule, and no doubt there is an equivalent story in Arabia. The attacks were meant to punish the American government for its policies. The first provocation for the attack was the U.S. force stationed in Saudi Arabia. The second was one about which Americans who have public careers, and especially Washington careers, prefer not to talk about. It was, and is, American acquiescence in and support for Israel’s continuing annexation of territories assigned by the United Nations in 1948 to compose a new, independent Palestinian state. Advertisement The third provocation was the American role in the 1991 Gulf War to liberate Kuwait from Iraq, which outraged many, although not all, Arabs. Those U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia were the consequence of that war. Finally was the American recruitment, with the help of Osama bin Laden, among others, of thousands of young Arabs to fight the 1979-1991 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Once that struggle was over, the U.S. dropped its support for those mujahedeen. That left a lot of trained, armed, angry, unemployed young men in the Middle East, with free-floating grievances, the main one being American interference in the affairs of the Muslim world. In retaliation, Osama bin Laden—without planning to do this specifically; he meant to attack symbols of American capitalism and militarism—delivered a terrible blow to what may be called the American nation’s soul. The nation was then at peace with itself, complacently so, after the Gulf War victory’s easy confirmation of its global preeminence, and the collapse of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, and effectively, in China. Americans felt very good about themselves. They had reason for that, aside from their evident power. They had no doubts about their national virtues, or about what it saw as the promise of America’s future as a model for a democratic world. Try to imagine what might have been had bin Laden not struck New York and Washington. George Bush would probably have been re-elected, as happened, but as a likable, swaggering but genial, compassionate conservative (whatever that would have meant to a mainstream Republican in our day), leading a country whose business has always been business. He would not have been transmogrified into The Decider, with the sinister and lawless Dick Cheney privatizing and industrializing unlimited wars of trillion-dollar cost, mustering obscene brigades of torturers and mercenary legions of morally lost adventurers, a creator of millions of ruined lives—while thousands of Americans cheered. Nations are like men in that they reveal their true character under stress. The worst thing Osama bin Laden did to the United States was to force us to reveal too much about our true character. It will be written down as his terrible vengeance upon us.
© 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.  TAGS:
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By wbradleyjr1, September 8, 2011 at 8:09 pm Link to this comment
I used to admire and respect the work of William Pfaff until now…
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, September 7, 2011 at 6:22 pm Link to this comment
The real OBL, a devout Islamist and follower of Muhammad quoted right after 9/11.
This guy was renown by his followers for being a man of faith, he would be the first to claim credit if he did it but he didn’t and I for one believe he didn’t have anything to do with it except be a fall guy.
http://www.mujca.com/osama.htm
Report thisBy ajkrueger, September 7, 2011 at 3:15 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Christ!
Here begins the new 9/11 propaganda orgy! They have even produced a video of the Let’s Roll plane crashing! Sort of… it shows some smoke - no plane - no bodies! Pass the barf bag!
Anybody who believes the “official story” has their head firmly planted in their ass!
Report thisBy MeHere, September 7, 2011 at 1:17 pm Link to this comment
It’s a natural and honorable gesture to express grief for the victims of 9/11 and their loved ones. But those of us who escaped the attack also have the obligation to reflect upon this event. I believe that W. Pfaff’s article accomplishes some of this.
Where are we now after 10 years of misguided retaliation with thousands of US war casualties and thousands upon thousands of foreign nationals killed? What has all that suffering accomplished?
To wave the flag and fill our egos with vengeful feelings is a sad disservice to the
Report this9/11 victims and to those who died and suffered in the aftermath. Our
responsibility is to look very carefully into what led to this tragedy.
By blogdog, September 7, 2011 at 11:12 am Link to this comment
the legend of Osama and Obama
yes, all that, whilst giving orders to an army of ‘jihadist’ recruiters, regularly visiting US prisons to round up more patsy provocateurs, whose ‘terrorism’ will fervently fuel the self-perpetuating global war of terror - the ever-expanding market for a faltering empire that, beyond its mindless pop culture, can no longer export anything but war, the tools to wage war and the essential propaganda to prevent it from ending; and, for which all are canon fodder
Report thisBy christian96, September 7, 2011 at 10:45 am Link to this comment
Osama Bid Laden did not die. He was drugged to make
Report thisit appear he was dead. After he was dumped into the
Ocean by the Navy he was picked up by the CIA and
brought to America. He is currently living in the
mountains of West Virginia. He was given 666
American blonde virgins to take care of him. He
receives frequent visits from Obama. Osama and
Obama read the Koran together and pray towards
Mecca.
By drbhelthi, September 7, 2011 at 10:20 am Link to this comment
“I will take the late Benazir Bhutto’s word over Leon (Fake OBL Photos) Panetta’s any day.” bob zimway
Same here !
In addition, even Panetta stated that there was no signal on the TV screen that the Obama cabinet crew was allegedly watching during the faked attack on the alleged Osama bin Laden “hideout”.
The Obama “bad actor” club, similar to all his acting when at the podium, and telling Americans how he is making things right. As he further destroys the US middle class, and America.
Report thisBy drbhelthi, September 7, 2011 at 9:36 am Link to this comment
Osama bin Laden at the bottom of a “sea”?
USGOV propaganda.
As reported by various former CIA staff and physicians, Osama bin Laden died in 2001 of renal failure. In addition, numerous persons affiliated with the dialysis industry have spread the word that he was on a machine the last year of his life.
Early Summer 2011, a european secret service insider informed me of the exact date of bin Laden´s demise, 19 December 2001. All well-informed persons also know that he was not affiliated with 9-11, similar to Muammar Gadhafi not being affiliated with the destruction of the PAA 747 over Lockerbie.
Since membership in the S.E.A.L. has been historically honorable, until their misuse in the alleged raid on the alleged residence of Osama bin Laden, I predict that one or more of the S.E.A.L. will shortly reveal the truth.
Obviously, Wm. Pfaff writes IAW his instructions, quite a deviation from the truth.
Report thisBy bob zimway, September 7, 2011 at 8:28 am Link to this comment
I will take the late Benazir Bhutto’s word over Leon (Fake OBL Photos) Panetta’s any
Report thisday.
By thecrow, September 7, 2011 at 7:14 am Link to this comment
This is the Bogeyman whose photo was broadcast on a split screen beside the still-burning WTC towers by the corporate networks on the morning of September 11, 2001. Before the towers were felled he was already fingered and imprinted on the public mind as the “mastermind” of the attacks.
Notice anything missing from the FBI’s description of this man?
How often have you heard the US government or its talking heads mention the fact that the FBI never “wanted” Osama bin Laden for the crime of 9/11?
Did Osama not confess his involvement on video for the world to see and hear? You remember—the one the Pentagon was kind enough to translate for us. Was that not enough to indict him?
If there was not enough evidence to secure a grand jury indictment of bin Laden for 9/11, was there yet enough to justify the bombing and decade-long occupation of Afghanistan with its attendant thousands of killed and maimed and mentally battered in pursuit of the “Evil One”?
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/interior-attack/
Report thisBy Lafayette, September 7, 2011 at 5:34 am Link to this comment
And in another ten years Bin Laden will be just as “remembered” as Carlos?
Who remembers Carlos? Count ‘em on your fingers.
He is rotting away in a jail outside Paris.
Report thisBy Psychobabbler, September 6, 2011 at 10:26 pm Link to this comment
I think I might be just like him if I was him. Can I say that? American aggression is outrageous and rude. Massive entitlement issues being ignored by our mentally manipulative industries. No reason for the lack of respect for our people from ‘our” government except their posturings about how we ‘need’ them. We do need them, but not in the ways they offer. Complete and total lack of usefulness from the privileged and intrusted.
When a homeless man is more enlightened than our government, everything is failed, as right as you want it to be, it’s just bullshit.
Report thisBy blogdog, September 6, 2011 at 5:00 pm Link to this comment
“...In retaliation, Osama bin Laden—without planning to do this specifically; he
meant to attack symbols of American capitalism and militarism—delivered a
terrible blow to what may be called the American nation’s soul…”
perfectly played - what all media, so-called progressive as well, has been shilling
for 10 years - why any serious anti-war movement must take down the 9/11 Myth
- it is the lynchpin to the Global War Of Terror - at the heart of that myth is bin
Laden - a CIA asset legend right up till his staged demise, probably 6-9 years
after his genuine death
if whatever so-called left-lib-prog media one follows persists in presenting the
Report thisGlobal War Of Terror, based on the 9/11-bin Laden premise, as told by TPTB, one
might do well to start asking why
By PatrickHenry, September 6, 2011 at 5:00 pm Link to this comment
Pleeeeeease.
Maybe a Bin Laden is in the ocean somewhere but it isn’t Osama.
Report thisBy berniem, September 6, 2011 at 4:05 pm Link to this comment
Is Bin Laden REALLY dead? FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!
Report thisBy diamond, September 6, 2011 at 3:47 pm Link to this comment
Christ. Where to begin. I refuse to believe you’re this stupid, Pfaff. You can only be doing it for money. What is happening in Afghanistan is that ‘capture or kill’ is in full swing. We are apparently teaching the Afghans that democracy means you go around with a list executing anyone on it or handing them over to the CIA and their black prisons. In other words we are the Mafia and that is what they think democracy is. The Mafia.
Case 1: Australian Special Forces turn up at night at a house in Afghanistan where a family celebration, birthday from memory, is about to begin. They burst into the house and shoot an unarmed man dead. Another man panics and tries to run back to his house. He is also shot as he runs. He is also unarmed. He is then stripped naked, shot again and savaged by a dog which tears off pieces of his ear, his leg and his chest. He is left to bleed to death. Another unarmed man is also shot and killed. One of the men they shoot had defied the Taliban to vote. His voter registration card is held up to the camera to prove he voted twice in defiance of the Taliban. Needless to say many hearts and minds were won that night.
Case 2. Australian Special Forces turn up at a warehouse run by one of the most successful construction contractors in Afghanistan. They push workers aside, take the businessman out of sight behind a wall and execute him in cold blood. They claim he tried to escape but there is no route of escape where they have taken him, no door and no exit. They claim he drew a pistol but his workers say he wasn’t even wearing a jacket and had no gun. It turns out that jealous business rivals had put his name on a list of Taliban supporters, which he manifestly was not, being a hardworking capitalist. More hearts and minds are won.
Your article is hilarious Pfaff. Hilarious and tragic. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered enough. Get to hell out of their countries and stop making excuses for murderers and Fascists. Both wars are a war crime. Enough said. And if you believe bin Laden is at the bottom of the ocean you need help.
Report thisBy gerard, September 6, 2011 at 3:45 pm Link to this comment
“—our true character”? If it’s not blaming others, it’s self-flagellation. Who, for example, knows what a phrase like “our true character” means? And can it possibly have any credible meaning?
Different members of a nation see their nation and themselves differently according to who they are, where they are, what their current mood is, whether they are fat or thin, stuffed on rich foods or dying of hunger, educated or ignorant, young or old.
As to what the follow-up of 9/11 has been: It’s true that the aftermath has revealed and is still revealing that we tend to be self-satisfied and want to feel unique, special. (Many people in many other nations have the same conceits.) We tend to rely on violence instead of intelligent solutions to problems. (Many others, the same.) We have all the faults for which we blame others, and perhaps Bin Laden had a share in revealing this. (Others have been brought to their knees by events of their own that, for them, revealed uncomfortable truths.)
We have betrayed our own values. (Others have done so also.)
In short, we are human, no more and no less. And as humans we have the ability to admit our mistakes, understand the reasons for them, and come to reconciliations and remedies which can be a spiritual force for building a more humane future.Maybe the best thing Bin Laden did for us was to reveal some of the dark side of ourselves. A wise poet once wrote ... “for each man kills the thing he loves…” It might be well for us to consider for a moment why we killed him and dumped him into the sea, and whether that act was revenge—or whether he was a kind of mirror that we could not stand to face. Deeper questions must be asked
Report thiswhen the world is shaken till the Haviland crashes to the floor.
By EmileZ, September 6, 2011 at 3:22 pm Link to this comment
That there is a pretty goddamn scary picture of what things might have been like if we hadn’t invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and started this war on terror before they started it on us.
Any responses for this man???
Speak up. Don’t be shy.
I am stumped.
Report this