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Why Bin Laden's ghost is smiling

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis239.html


Bin Laden is dead, but bin-Ladenism lives on. Osama’s primary goal was to end Western domination of the Muslim world, and exploitation of its resources, which he claimed were being plundered. The Western-backed dictators, generals and kings that ruled the Muslim world as overseers for foreign interests had to be overthrown proclaimed bin Laden.

The Muslim world rejected bin Laden’s bloody-mindedness and his utopian calls for a reborn Islamic caliphate, but many of its people, particularly so younger ones, embraced his calls for revolutions to liberate the region from brutal dictatorships that licked the West’s boots, spread corruption, and betrayed the cause of Palestine. Husni Mubarak’s Egypt amply fit this description.

Osama bin Laden lived long enough to see the revolutions that he had helped ignite among young people burst into towering flames. In this sense, bin Ladenism will prosper and spread, enhanced by the image of Osama the martyr.

The Saudi revolutionary leaves another legacy. He repeatedly stated that the only way to drive the US from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing the United States into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt it. The United States under President George W. Bush and then Barack Obama rushed right into bin Laden’s carefully laid trap.

Today, the nearly bankrupt United States is spending hundreds of billions annually waging small wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and the Sahara. Grotesquely overblown military spending and debt addiction are crippling United States. That is why the ghost of bin Laden may be smiling.
 
You could just as easily argue that the revolutions in the middle east were inspired by what happened in Iraq.
 
I don't know if his ghost is smiling but he did meet his objective.
 
I have Lew Rockwell bookmarked, mainly for the entertainment value. The writers are like a stopped clock ... right about twice a day.

They seem to hate everything.

We need a for one of the networks to have a show with a LR and a Democratic Underground host. It would be TV gold.
 
I don't know if his ghost is smiling but he did meet his objective.

He met his objective? The whole point of 9/11 was to coerce the US into leaving the Arabian peninsula and to cut ties with Israel. Oops.
 
A lot of Muslims are glad he is gone. This is an article in my local paper today:

Osama bin Laden's death was a breathtaking surprise to moderate Muslims in Delaware who say the al-Qaida leader's extremism created a distorted image of their faith that they've had to counter.

"Believe me, no one is missing him because he was a hater spreading a message of destruction," said Ikram Masmoudi, assistant professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Delaware.

"All good Muslims are relieved."

Local members of the faith hope for an easing of tensions been Muslims and non-Muslims.

The tensions stem partly from congressional hearings on homegrown extremism and the burning of the Quran by Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., said Dr. Sheerin Javed of Landenberg, Pa.

"Today I can feel a lessening of pressure on my shoulders," Javed said. "It's a good day to be a Muslim."

After 9/11, it was not so good, because bin Laden gave a murderous face to Islam, one which Javed revolted against because it was focused on hate rather than reconciliation.

In 2008, she launched a cultural organization -- Circle of Hands -- to foster peaceful relations in the tri-state region. Today, the nonprofit has its own space in the White Clay Medical Center near Newark and sponsors dance and music, camps and bus trips.

In many ways, Circle of Hands was a response to 9/11 and has given local Muslims a voice in cultural events and a chance to meet with members of other faiths.

The work itself has been gratifying and led Muslim volunteers to nonprofits, like Meals on Wheels, where they've lent a hand. "Bin Laden is gone but our work has to continue," Javed said.

Around the world, there's relief that bin Laden has been stopped from planning terrorist acts and the relief may translate into more positive feelings about Islam, said Semab Chaudhry of Newark.

Another factor in changing impressions is that Americans have watched democratic uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Tunisia and have a more nuanced view of the Arab world than 10 years ago. The revolutions have been grass-roots happenings in which people have chosen tactics different from those of bin Laden in 2001.

"I think Americans have begun to see that Muslims and Arabs want freedom and institutions that are similar to what Americans want for themselves," Chaudhry said.

However, he is less sanguine for what bin Laden's death means for U.S.-Pakistan relations given that the terrorist leader was living in the city of Abbottabad in a large compound about 800 yards from the Pakistan Military Academy.

That raises all sorts of questions about Pakistan's relationship to extremism -- questions that Chaudhry thinks about as a Pakistani-American, though he has no answers.

He does know it's a good thing not to have bin Laden on the scene.

Masmoudi thinks so, too. And she hopes his death will allow Americans to begin something new in the nation that once served as his base.

"I hope the troops will withdraw from Afghanistan," she said. "But that is not an easy thing."

http://www.delawareonline.com/artic...press-relief?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|p
 
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