Has Bush outfoxed bin Laden?

The terrorist atrocities inflicted on the US have give rise to a new rumor mill that grinds out stories that range from the banal to the bizarre. But a story out of the Middle East has more credibility than most, particularly in certain quarters. Some cooler and more intelligent heads in the Arab world have concluded that Bush has outfoxed the fanatical bin Laden.

Like all fanatics bin Laden is narrowly on his mission while being disconnected from the real world. Far from being the educated man he is said to be he, like his suicide-bombers, is remarkable ignorant of the West, specially the US. Although some of his followers have been educated at Western Universities their education has been confined to technical subjects like engineering. Those, for example, who attended US universities learnt nothing of US history or cultural values, confusing topless bars, which some of them enjoyed, with moral decay and lack of will. The sad fact is that what little they knew of US history and policies came entirely from the country’s anti-American left, which has painted a grossly dishonest picture of America that neatly fitted in with these terrorists’ anti-American dogma thus blinding them further to the political and military consequences of their actions.

As our editor pointed out at a recent seminar in Australia, being narrowly focused to the exclusion of all else is part of the terrorists’ Achilles heel. And so it is with bin Laden. Believing himself to be the hand of God and a follower of the one true faith, or his fanatical version of it, means he operates with an open loop. Therefore there is no negative feedback mechanism to correct his distorted picture of the world. There are no advisers to council restraint or retreat because like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc., he literally believes himself to be the only one capable of interpreting events and predicting their consequences.

Now we have bin Laden’s fundamental weakness. Being truly ignorant of American history and knowing nothing of the country’s political system he has made the mistake of drawing the wrong lesson from a narrow range of fairly recent events by interpreting it in terms of his world view: the refusal of George Bush senior’s to finish off Saddam Hussein, the hasty retreat from Somalia, the successful bombing of US embassies and military bases in Saudi Arabia, the attack on the Cole and Clinton’s self-serving pinprick responses to terrorism.

In bin Laden’s fantasy America would either respond in a Clintonesque way and so demonstrate to the world its cowardly nature or it would blindly strike out, killing hundreds if not thousands of innocents and so inflame the whole of the Islamic world. (Notice how closely his apocalyptic vision resembles the extreme left’s one of a world-wide revolution against capitalism).

He got neither. Instead of grabbing the initiative he made a terrible blunder. His actions pulled the US together, awakening in it a steely resolve that can have only one outcome. Instead of retreating or immediately striking out, President Bush set about building up a mighty military force not only to destroy bin Laden but to demonstrate to the rest of the world the consequences of attacking America. Afghanistan has been isolated, it’s borders sealed.

Battle lines have been drawn and are being supported with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Russia, Tajikstan. Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, even Iran, Pakistan and China are cooperating. British special forces (SAS) are already operating in the country while American special forces are moving in. A coordinated plan consisting of concentrated air attacks on terrorist camps and Taliban installations, special forces assault teams, and the cooperation of the Northern Alliance is being put into action. None of this, so the story goes, is supposed to be happening.

Moreover, there are rumors that the scale of the forces that bin Laden has unleashed has caused subterranean cracks to appear within the Taliban’s ranks, with some of them wondering why they should have to take the fall for bin Laden. The smarter ones know they are not popular among the mass of Afghans, and that if properly equipped and supported by Western powers the Northern Alliance would drive them back to their mountain villages — that is if the locals don’t hang them from cranes and artillery barrels first.

Afghan refugees are relating tales of an increasing number of Taliban acts of banditry and rape as order collapses in the towns and cities. The wholesale kidnapping of non-Pashtun males aged between 15 and 30 for ‘military’ service smells of panic because the Taliban knows these males belong to hostile ethnic minorities. These are not the actions of men who believe in their own invincibility.

So to some Arab observers Bush has already won. But surely if bin Laden is killed other bin Laden’s will arise. There is only one bin Laden, thank God. This latter-day Mahdi is just another religious millenarian who promises paradise by driving out the infidel, the cause of the faithful’s misery. Such people have been a curse throughout history.

I’m not saying that terrorism will end with bin Laden, only that his head must be the first to roll if victory is to be achieved. Once this is done, the invisible war against terrorism will accelerate, from the freezing of bank accounts to the assassination of terrorist organizers and the smashing of their networks.

The strategy, as explained to me, is basically simple. Make an example of bin Laden, demonstrate overwhelming military power and the will to use it against states that harbor and train terrorists; isolate the terrorists physically and squeeze them psychologically. The ultimate aim is the elimination of state-sponsored terrorism.

How many recounts do you need before you accept that you are WRONG about this?

Your aid and comfort to the enemies of this country is hereby noted, and will eventually be dealt with accordingly. In short, America will give your guilty a** a fair trial and hang you the next morning.

Listen, you creep, humor or no -- you are perpetuating a myth, and we don't think it's funny.

It was Gore who tried to steal the election, and Bush only stopped him from doing it.

Liberals are like lying kids who hit the child next to them, and say, "He hit me!"

Tie yourself 60 percent to a sinking rock, and watch your life go down the toilet. What will you have to show for your life when you die? Wasting time fussing over a bunch of liberal lies?

From RedlegDuke: "It just eats at you to have to consider that maybe our President is doing a good job, doesn't it. You are either a DU fanatic, a "Hate America First" traitor, or a pathetically confused person. Thank you for choosing sides and telling all of us."

Francis, dont you just love it when you present a well thought out counter-argument and you get slammed for being a liberal DU sympathizer? TOTALLY inappropriate response to your post.

PSST, Redleg, the earth is, get this,....ROUND!!!

Yup, no OJ media circus trials, no getting off by slick shysters like Johnny. Just hunt the terrorist dogs down and put a little lead right between the eyes. Open em up and let the sun shine in! Leave a little calling card like some bacon shoved in their mouths so the scum and his friends think he is in hell, not paradise. We should send them all to hell so they can be with allah sooner rather than later. Is that too extreme? It’s better than a bio\chem\nuclear terror attack, which is what they want to do next. Kill or be killed, it looks like to me.

I applaud the adminstration's foreign policy victories, but I'm concerned their military strikes (having taken so long) may be less than effective.

As I posted somewhere earlier in the week, VENGEANCE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD! I am glad the President is taking his time; It would be worse to strike out and miss. I know we all want some retribution for the violence visited on us by bin Laden and his cohorts, but I'm glad our folks are getting all the little duckies in a row; the better to shoot them down when the time comes.

And the miss by the FBI and CIA is making them hyper-vigilant right now, which is getting a lot of folks caught up in the net. Some of those may not be conspirators, but some just might be, and we may have headed off some future terrorist actions.

I was just thinking that right now may be the safest time to fly anywhere because everyone is SO hyper-vigilant. Hubby is flying out to CA next week, and I realized this morning that I am not worried about it; I feel safer knowing that a lot is going on behind the scenes.

Don't underestimate bin Laden

Oh please! The little weasal is the most over estimated boogy man in history. Just like Sadaam and his "Mother of all Battles".

If I was you, I'd worry about underestimating G.W.Bush. Dubya has been underestimated his entire life and as the entire world can now see, THAT IS A BIG MISTAKE!

Another miscalculation is their estimation of the law enforcement response. I'm no fan of the FBI, but they appear to have found a lot of evidence when they finally went looking. I think Bin Laden actually bought the press reports about FBI incompetance (CIA too). His minions were sloppy and left far too much evidence laying around.

A DU fanatic would have said "Bush blew up the Trade Center so he could start a war to enrich his oil buddies," or something like that.

We have a small group of posters here who are saying that.

A traitor would have said "America got what it deserved because of our horrible foreign policy which has no regard for human rights in developing countries," etc.

Ron Paul essentially said that.

You are a mentally challenged moral midget sir. You need to go to the DNC and get some updated talking points guy, get with it geesh! In case you haven’t heard our country is under attack and our President needs the help of all Americans, even you pinhead demonrats. Or maybe you thought Sept. 11 was funny?

Clinton’s self-serving pinprick responses to terrorism.

Quite the wordsmith...

self-serving ...prick

Neat.

The US has to get everything in place first to do it right.

I think they are setting things up for quick reaction strikes. Get the forces in place, have the troops sitting on a hair trigger and when intelligence pops up showing a viable target, hit it fast before the roaches have a chance to scurry back under the cabinets.

Bush and the team is concerned more about the quality of the strikes rather than the quantity. AN they will happen on his timetable not bin laden's, cnn's or public ipinions.

In this Bush is the Anti-Clinton, Thnaks God the Adults are in charge.

The sad fact is that what little they knew of US history and policies came entirely from the country’s anti-American left, which has painted a grossly dishonest picture of America that neatly fitted in with these terrorists’ anti-American dogma thus blinding them further to the political and military consequences of their actions.

Interesting speculation, but where is the proof? Christopher Hitchens' perceptive observation is apropos: while we can ascribe many motives to the terrorists, no one yet knows what was in their minds.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.