http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.hanson15sep15,0,4332544
.story?coll=bal-attack-headlines
Bin Laden tape shows we have a lot to relearn about our terrorist foes
By Victor Davis Hanson
Originally published September 15, 2006
In speeches leading up to the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, President
Bush focused on the dangers of Islamic fascism and the efforts, at home and
abroad, to combat it. In response, his election-year rivals fired back that
we are no safer than we were five years ago. According to them, we are mired
in Afghanistan and Iraq and have sacrificed our civil liberties while
exaggerating the global terrorist threat.
But al-Qaida is not so conflicted. While American politicians tore into each
other, Al Jazeera calmly released a video of Osama bin Laden from before
9/11. Given the timing of the tape's release, you could call it bin Laden's
alternative commemoration of the mass murder of nearly 3,000 Americans.
The film reveals bin Laden strutting through his Afghan terrorist camp and
blessing those who were preparing the 9/11 suicide attacks. Other top men in
al-Qaida appear, and at least two of the hijackers boast of their planned
jihad in Manhattan.
There is a lot to relearn from the footage that we have apparently forgotten
in these last five years.
Let's start with what prompted 9/11. Today, according to a Scripps Howard
poll, more than a third of Americans suspect the attacks were an inside job
(with federal officials either helping the hijackers or at least knowing
about them in advance). Meanwhile, a majority of our Canadian neighbors
believe U.S. policies were a primary cause of the attack.
But what does the newly released tape tell us? Was 9/11 a result of American
support for Israel, the presence of our troops in Saudi Arabia, or the U.N.
embargo of Iraq - the grievances that bin Laden in 1998 named as grounds for
murdering Americans?
Not according to two of the captioned "Martyrs of the Manhattan Raid," who
spoke freely in this newly released tape. Saudi nationals Hamza Alghamdi
(who helped crash Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center)
and Wail Alshehri (who joined Mohamed Atta on Flight 11 to topple the North
Tower) mostly voiced anger over Western violence against Muslims in Chechnya
and Bosnia.
Never mind that the U.S., almost alone among Western countries, criticized
Russian tactics in Grozny, and bombed a European Christian country for
several weeks to save Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Instead of having any precise claim against America, these killers showed
that their hurt arose from their own sense of envy and collective failure -
as the now all-too-familiar references to "being humiliated" and lost honor
in the tape attest.
There is no doubt who Mr. Alghamdi and Mr. Alshehri were - or what they were
planning to do. Yet polls since 9/11 consistently reveal that most Muslims
in the Middle East do not believe that al-Qaida, much less any Arab Muslims
at all, carried out the attacks. Instead, Israel or the CIA is blamed. So
the tape is also a chilling reminder that in this war, evidence means
nothing - superstition, bias and delusion everything.
It's also important to note that bin Laden acknowledges the murder plot and
prays for the hijackers ("ask God ... to aim their shots well"). Yet some
delude themselves that bin Laden, albeit misguided and dangerous, is still a
resistance fighter driven by notions of Islamic purity. In the past, bin
Laden has even denied his involvement in planning 9/11. Here, though, he
clearly takes credit for it. The Arab "street" should be reminded that its
icon is not only a killer and a thug but a pathological liar as well.
And let's not forget what has become of these odious jihadists since this
creepy pre-9/11 video was made, since their various fates might offer some
barometer of our success or failure in this present period of domestic
recriminations.
Most of our enemies who appear in this latest film are either dead,
scattered or in captivity - and by the very policies of military retaliation
and incarceration so criticized around the world.
Ultimately, the tape of this now-extinct terrorist camp reminds us not to
impute our own notions about motives to these jihadists. Instead, why not
just watch and listen to what they really do and say? The truth may shock
us.
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