There is no doubt that Osama bin Laden was a mass murderer who put the world on fire on 9/11. Who was he? Why did he carry out this most heinous of crimes? What did he achieve? What did he fail to achieve? What were the unintended consequences of 9/11?
Two decades later, we know a lot more about him, his accomplishments, and his failures than we did when the attacks happened.
Osama bin Laden came from a rich Saudi Arabian family that traced its roots back to Yemen. He had fought with US and Pakistani forces during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. During that war, he blended in almost totally with the local mujahedeen and picked up enough of the Afghan culture so that the Afghans thought of him as an honored guest. During that decade, he thought of the US as an ally of the Muslim world.
Two years later, his views turned 180 degrees when the US, along with several allies, decided to evict Saddam Hussain from Kuwait during the Gulf War of 1991. To him, the presence of non-Islamic forces on the soil of the Holy Kingdom was a deep affront. It brought back long-latent memories of the Crusades.
During the decade that followed, he began preparing for the next war, which would be directed against the West. He began recruiting fellow Muslims by drilling into them the message – enhanced by citations from the Muslim scripture and the Prophetic traditions -- that it was the duty of Muslims to rise and regain their glory. He said the misery that had befallen them came from the lust they had developed for the transient life on earth. He exhorted upon them to rise and fight the New Crusaders who had invaded the sacrosanct land where the two holiest mosques were located.
Thus, it was that a decade after the Gulf War, on the 11th of September, 2001, nineteen young men prepared not only to dispense with their lives but also to kill thousands of innocents simply because they lived in the US.
Lawrence Wright, author of the meticulously researched book, ‘The Looming Tower,’ who had earlier taught at the American University in Cairo, says that many of the hijackers were well educated with no known mental issues. Some were even living in the West. Osama lit a fire in them when he recited a verse from the scripture, “Wherever you are, death will find you, even in the looming tower.”
The attacks of 9/11 caught the world by surprise. Osama was ebullient in his triumph. It would prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In the beginning, fortune smiled on him. Later, it would devour him.
The US walked right into the trap he had laid for it when it invaded Afghanistan. In a matter of weeks, the US had deposed the Taliban from Kabul. Osama escaped and eventually found refuge across the border in Pakistan.
Afghanistan was turned into an American protectorate, with the US staying on through the sheer dint of its military muscle. The tussle between the West and the Muslim world had begun, giving Osama his second win.
The 9/11 attacks gave the neoconservatives in the US the excuse they had been waiting for to seize the Middle East. On the flimsiest of excuses, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, the US invaded Iraq alone, not assisted by any other Western power. The US intention was to depose Saddam and take over Iraq.
Osama and Saddam had radically different ideologies. It is likely that Osama counted the US invasion of Iraq as his third win. He knew it would take a terrible toll on the US economy and on the US forces that would come to occupy Iraq. He knew the more the US attacked the local population in search of terrorists, the more terrorists would be created.
Indeed, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began to take a terrible toll on the US economy and US service personnel began to die in the thousands. Osama probably counted that as his fourth win.
Then fortune turned on him. With Saddam gone, and his army disbanded along with all other Iraqi institutions, Iraqi society began to crumble. In that chaos, a new terrorist group, ISIS, was born. It set about reigniting the Shia-Sunni schism in Iraq. Horrible atrocities and terrorist attacks became a daily occurrence. Beheadings were routinely captured on video and posted on the web. So were other horrifying acts, such as throwing accused gay men from the top of buildings to their death.
ISIS quickly metastasized into satellite terror groups. These groups unleashed a wave of terror that swept through the Muslim world, with the worst incidents being carried out in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, and Pakistan. In Iraq and in Afghanistan, the US attacks against suspected terrorists killed hundreds if not thousands of innocent Muslims.
This is not what Osama had sought out to achieve through his 9/11 attacks. Al-Qaeda, his creation, was pushed into the background by ISIS and the offshoots it had spawned, becoming increasingly irrelevant. Osama’s letters and diaries that were found in the Abbottabad house where he was killed reveal his anxieties.
Nelly Lahoud, a defense analyst based in the US, has analyzed those materials in a newly published book, “The Jihadis Path to Self-Destruction.” Osama comes across as a brooding figure who is in depression, regretting that he has unleashed a civil war in the Muslim world. He is ruminating about his loss of status and possibly even regretting his role in the carnage that the 9/11 attacks had unleashed in the Muslim world. He is saying that perhaps it is time to change tactics.
Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the world, the US Navy Seals found him living just a mile away from the army academy in Kakul and killed him. Unfortunately for the world, the flame of jihadism that he lit is still very much alive. It has gotten a new lease of life with the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan where the whole story began, four decades ago.
What lies ahead in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and in much of the Muslim world is now the subject of intense debate throughout the world.
Two decades later, we know a lot more about him, his accomplishments, and his failures than we did when the attacks happened.
Osama bin Laden came from a rich Saudi Arabian family that traced its roots back to Yemen. He had fought with US and Pakistani forces during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. During that war, he blended in almost totally with the local mujahedeen and picked up enough of the Afghan culture so that the Afghans thought of him as an honored guest. During that decade, he thought of the US as an ally of the Muslim world.
Two years later, his views turned 180 degrees when the US, along with several allies, decided to evict Saddam Hussain from Kuwait during the Gulf War of 1991. To him, the presence of non-Islamic forces on the soil of the Holy Kingdom was a deep affront. It brought back long-latent memories of the Crusades.
During the decade that followed, he began preparing for the next war, which would be directed against the West. He began recruiting fellow Muslims by drilling into them the message – enhanced by citations from the Muslim scripture and the Prophetic traditions -- that it was the duty of Muslims to rise and regain their glory. He said the misery that had befallen them came from the lust they had developed for the transient life on earth. He exhorted upon them to rise and fight the New Crusaders who had invaded the sacrosanct land where the two holiest mosques were located.
Thus, it was that a decade after the Gulf War, on the 11th of September, 2001, nineteen young men prepared not only to dispense with their lives but also to kill thousands of innocents simply because they lived in the US.
Lawrence Wright, author of the meticulously researched book, ‘The Looming Tower,’ who had earlier taught at the American University in Cairo, says that many of the hijackers were well educated with no known mental issues. Some were even living in the West. Osama lit a fire in them when he recited a verse from the scripture, “Wherever you are, death will find you, even in the looming tower.”
The attacks of 9/11 caught the world by surprise. Osama was ebullient in his triumph. It would prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In the beginning, fortune smiled on him. Later, it would devour him.
The US walked right into the trap he had laid for it when it invaded Afghanistan. In a matter of weeks, the US had deposed the Taliban from Kabul. Osama escaped and eventually found refuge across the border in Pakistan.
Afghanistan was turned into an American protectorate, with the US staying on through the sheer dint of its military muscle. The tussle between the West and the Muslim world had begun, giving Osama his second win.
The 9/11 attacks gave the neoconservatives in the US the excuse they had been waiting for to seize the Middle East. On the flimsiest of excuses, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, the US invaded Iraq alone, not assisted by any other Western power. The US intention was to depose Saddam and take over Iraq.
Osama and Saddam had radically different ideologies. It is likely that Osama counted the US invasion of Iraq as his third win. He knew it would take a terrible toll on the US economy and on the US forces that would come to occupy Iraq. He knew the more the US attacked the local population in search of terrorists, the more terrorists would be created.
Indeed, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began to take a terrible toll on the US economy and US service personnel began to die in the thousands. Osama probably counted that as his fourth win.
Then fortune turned on him. With Saddam gone, and his army disbanded along with all other Iraqi institutions, Iraqi society began to crumble. In that chaos, a new terrorist group, ISIS, was born. It set about reigniting the Shia-Sunni schism in Iraq. Horrible atrocities and terrorist attacks became a daily occurrence. Beheadings were routinely captured on video and posted on the web. So were other horrifying acts, such as throwing accused gay men from the top of buildings to their death.
ISIS quickly metastasized into satellite terror groups. These groups unleashed a wave of terror that swept through the Muslim world, with the worst incidents being carried out in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, and Pakistan. In Iraq and in Afghanistan, the US attacks against suspected terrorists killed hundreds if not thousands of innocent Muslims.
This is not what Osama had sought out to achieve through his 9/11 attacks. Al-Qaeda, his creation, was pushed into the background by ISIS and the offshoots it had spawned, becoming increasingly irrelevant. Osama’s letters and diaries that were found in the Abbottabad house where he was killed reveal his anxieties.
Nelly Lahoud, a defense analyst based in the US, has analyzed those materials in a newly published book, “The Jihadis Path to Self-Destruction.” Osama comes across as a brooding figure who is in depression, regretting that he has unleashed a civil war in the Muslim world. He is ruminating about his loss of status and possibly even regretting his role in the carnage that the 9/11 attacks had unleashed in the Muslim world. He is saying that perhaps it is time to change tactics.
Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the world, the US Navy Seals found him living just a mile away from the army academy in Kakul and killed him. Unfortunately for the world, the flame of jihadism that he lit is still very much alive. It has gotten a new lease of life with the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan where the whole story began, four decades ago.
What lies ahead in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and in much of the Muslim world is now the subject of intense debate throughout the world.