Imperial Hubris

The former CIA Station Chief in charge of going after Bin Laden recently wrote a book about why the West is losing the war on terror. Slate provides excerpts.

Page 8: The fundamental flaw in our thinking about Bin Laden is that "Muslims hate and attack us for what we are and think, rather than what we do." Muslims are bothered by our modernity, democracy, and sexuality, but they are rarely spurred to action unless American forces encroach on their lands. It's American foreign policy that enrages Osama and al-Qaida, not American culture and society.

Page 11-13: How is the United States threatening Muslim lands? The post-9/11 crackdowns on Muslim charities have effectively ended tithing, which is one of the five pillars of Islam; our casual denunciations of "jihad" sneer at a central tenet of the Muslim faith. America supports corrupt anti-Muslim governments in Uzbekistan and China, "apostate" governments in the Middle East, and the new Christian state of East Timor. And, above all, it continues to house occupying forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Page 127-33: More evidence for Osama's coherence: His taped addresses display a remarkable consistency in theme and tone. Bin Laden almost always defines American-led forces as the primary enemy, emphasizes the centrality of al-Qaida as an incendiary force, and exhorts young Muslim men to join the fight. The last plank has subtly changed since 9/11. Before, Osama would shame young men into enlisting; now, he smothers them with encouragement and suggests that jihad is a natural stop on the path to manhood. Scheuer says this shows al-Qaida is having no trouble recruiting new charges.

Page 22-25: America's response to 9/11 was a "complete disaster." After Bin Laden's daring attacks on the USS Cole and the embassies in East Africa, we should have had a "next-day" attack plan ready for future strikes. Such an attack could have decapitated al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan on Sept. 12. Instead we waited more than three weeks to invade Afghanistan, and Bin Laden and key operatives had time to escape.

Page 217-8: Al-Qaida's "terrorist training camps" were anything but. The majority of the rank-and-file were paramilitary troops trained to fight their "corrupt" native governments. The bona fide terrorists—suicide bombers, assassins, et al.—made up a small portion of the camps, much like special forces do on an Army base. So while the United States was fixating on terrorists, it ignored the huge, well-trained Islamist armies the camps were producing.

Page 182: The United States tapped Mongolian troops for occupation duty in Iraq, despite the historical enmity between the nations. The infamous Mongol general Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, sacked Baghdad in 1258, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Muslims, and remains one of Iraq's most despised villains.