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 Americans
Too Impatient To Win?
Thoughts on Osama Bin Laden's latest taped message
[by Laura
Mansfield] 1/26/06
Last week’s
audio-taped message from Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden concluded
with the following comments:
We
patiently fought the Soviet Union with
small humble weapons for ten years and we drained their economy
until they collapsed and vanished, praise be to Allah.
You
should have learned a lesson from that.
We
will be patient fighting you, Allah willing, until one of
us dies. We will never flee from fighting you until the
end.
Osama
Bin Laden is telling us in no uncertain terms that he believes
he has found the Achilles Heel of the United States, and that he will be
aiming directly for that spot.
Contributor
Laura
Mansfield
Laura Mansfield is a writer and commentator on issues regarding the Middle
East, Islam, and Radical Islamic Terrorism.
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One
Nation Under Allah by Laura Mansfield |
Inshallah
by
Laura Mansfield |
Our
Achilles Heel is patience. As a nation, we have lost our patience. We no longer are capable of pulling together
for the long haul. We
expect everything to happen in nice, short, easily digestible
segments, with no pain, discomfort, or even inconvenience along
the way.
I
was at a women’s meeting this weekend. One of the women said, only half in jest, “I’m
taking this war in Iraq personally;
now children of my friends are being sent over there”.
That
is a statement that you will hear echoed throughout the US. By and large, we’re willing to get behind a
cause for a while, until it starts impacting us or our friends. We support extra security as long as we aren’t
the ones who are being watched more closely.
We
are by and large a TV people. We have demonstrated that we want quick results. When
we get bored because it’s taking too long to get the job done,
then we want to quit.
Osama
Bin Laden has declared war on the United States. Almost everyone in
American knew that on September 12, 2001, a day after the first
salvo was launched, bringing down the twin towers of the World Trade Center and
setting the Pentagon on fire.
While
the fires burned, President Bush declared a “War on Terror” and
vowed to bring justice to those who attacked us. The crowds cheered the President, cursed Bin
Laden, and waved flags. A
bipartisan chorus from the Senate and House joined together
on the Capitol steps to sing God Bless America.
But
despite the warnings from our Commander in Chief, most of America failed
to grasp that the “War on Terror” was no ordinary war. Even today, most would mark the beginning of
the War on Terror as September 11, 2001. Most
thought that we would march into Afghanistan, liberate the country,
kick the butts of the Taliban, and watch Bin Laden do the Perp
Walk before the next Super Bowl.
In
reality, the War on Terror began nearly a quarter of a century
earlier, with the Islamic Revolution in Iran and continued full swing through
the 1980’s. U.S. Embassies
and housing complexes for our military were bombed, American
diplomats, private citizens, and military personnel were kidnapped,
executed and some beheaded. The US Embassy in Tehran was
overrun by Radical Islamist students in Iran;
the staff was held hostage for 444 days. Nightclubs,
airports, and airplanes were targeted by bombs and automatic
weapons.
Radical
Islam had declared War on America.
Meanwhile
the other Superpower of the late 20th century found
itself embroiled in its own battle with Radical Islam, when
the Soviet Union marched its armies into Afghanistan.
Radical
Islam turned to the US for help against the Soviets: the US
trained and armed guerilla soldiers who adopted the name “mujahideen” from
the early Holy warriors who followed the Prophet Mohamed were
eager to accept weapons from the “Great Satan”.
In
retrospect, it is obvious, but at the time few recognized this
was simply a case of the “mujahideen” following the old axiom “the
enemy of my enemy is by friend”, a practice that they continue
to follow, most notably in the alliance between the Sunni Al
Qaeda and the Shi’ite government in Iran.
From
a military strategy standpoint, the Soviet
Union was completely unprepared for the enemy they
faced. They had planned and drilled for battle with
the United
States. They anticipated that their biggest threat would
come from the huge war machine of the US military.
Bin
Laden summed up the battle strategy that he and his “mujahideen” used
to bring down the Soviets:
We
patiently fought the Soviet Union with
small humble weapons for ten years and we drained their economy
until they collapsed and vanished
Bin
Laden is quite clear that he is using the same strategy against
the United
States.
Unless
we pay attention he is likely to succeed.
Osama
is not some rube from the boonies. He is an intelligent and educated man who is
driven by a religious fervor, making him even more dangerous. He saw the dent that the US economy took
after 9/11. He has carefully observed the behavior of the US economy
every time he releases a new taped message.
He
was paying attention when Hurricane Katrina roared into the Gulf Coast.
He
knows that the US people
have a short memory; he knows that we are a spoiled nation.
He knows that with rare exceptions, we are one paycheck away
from disaster as individuals, one natural or manmade disaster
away from social collapse on a regional basis at the very least.
He
knows the impact oil prices have on the US economy; he knows that while we
are terror-phobic, we aren’t willing to make the sacrifices
and changes it will require to mitigate the risk of terrorism.
He
knows that the more chronological distance that is put between
us and the 9/11 attacks, the less we remember, and the more
at risk we become from shoving our heads into the sand ostrich-like.
And
he knows the damage it will cause when he sends his suicide
bombers after us on our own soil. I’m
not talking about the damage to property or the loss of life;
I’m talking about serious damage to our morale and to our national
psyche, as well as to the economy.
In
the message, Bin Laden says:
We
would not object if you ask for a long-term truce based on
fair conditions that we both agree to. As a nation, God has
forbidden us to lie and cheat, thus both sides can enjoy
security and stability through a truce while we rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, which have both been
demolished through war.
But
he also says:
In
the end, victory in this war will either be for us or for
you. If it is for us, you will be disgraced and this
is the way things are progressing; but
if it is the latter, you should read history and you would
learn that as a nation we do not sleep in defeat, and we
will avenge our defeat forever, and many days and nights
will not pass before we take our revenge as we did on September
11.
He
is telling us that he will agree to a truce with us, if we
ask for it. After all,
he has nothing to lose. He
is laying out his terms for us in this message. He
will agree to a truce until they can rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan,
and have a safe haven as their base of terror.
But
they will never forget, and will never give up the battle.
Charles
Welty, author of Ameristan, has defined the Arabic word Hudna,
which is used to mean truce, as “pause while we reload our
weapons”.
That
is the kind of truce Bin Laden is offering. He would like for us to ease up, to give up
the battle while he regroups.
Osama
Bin Laden is a patient man. He can and will wait until the time suits him.
He
said in the message:
The
delay in similar operations in America,
is not because we cannot break through your security; operations are being planned that you will see
carried out in your homes.
He’s
stressing to us that he has considerable patience. He will wait as long as he needs in order to
accomplish his goals. If
we kill him, then he is rewarded in paradise. In his twisted
mind, if he survives, he will be rewarded on earth and in paradise.
He
knows that America has a short memory. He is working on a hundred year plan; he knows America is
on a four year plan because everything can change at the
next Presidential election.
The Soviet
Union fell because their strategic planners misjudged
their enemy. After all how much damage could be done a rag
tag bunch of men with riles and a handful of RPG launchers? They weren’t the first to underestimate their
enemy - the British made a similar mistake a couple of centuries
before, in 1776.
Let’s
hope we don’t make the same mistake today -one-
copyright
2006 Laura Mansfield
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