Bin Laden's "Game" Is Not Over

There is no doubt that bin Laden is history’s most intelligent terrorist so far. He is a strategic and organizational genius. Ten days after the Sept. 11 attacks, University of Washington’s associate provost Debra Friedman and professor of sociology Michael Hechter published in the Los Angeles Times a barely known article entitled “Will U.S. Be an Unwitting Tool in Bin Laden’s Game?” The article claimed that bin Laden’s fiercest hatred was reserved for the Islamic world’s autocratic governments, not the United States. His ultimate goal was to overthrow these corrupted Middle East governments and construct Talibanized Islamic regimes.

Bin Laden fundamentally understood that leading this unprecedented revolution with only the support of the Islamic people was not enough. Since the United States and its allies had become, after the Soviet breakup, impregnable sovereigns in the world, his biggest challenge was to show to his people that success was possible. However, the United States could help him attain his goal. Therefore, bin Laden carefully planned his conspiracy: If the 9/11 attacks can maul the so-called invincible regimes, his revolution would attract numerous Muslim followers. What’s more important, he could succeed in summoning a strong revolutionary power that knew nothing about the severe corruption among the Islamic regimes but was able to tackle them — U.S. military force.

To understand bin Laden’s game, we should think beyond the logic of terrorism and consider bin Laden as a revolutionary. The purpose of terrorism is to cause trepidation and chaos, but bin Laden aimed at galvanizing Americans’ nerves and instigating the United States’ large-scale military revenge actions. After 9/11, the Bush government vowed to punish terrorism and countries that harbor it and named the anti-terrorism war a “Crusade.” This war is absolutely what bin Laden craved. No wonder that, for quite a long time before the Iraq War, the New York Times had been using diurnally a whole page to carry a photo of bin Laden, in which Laden waved his hands demanding: “I want you to bomb Iraq!” It is not difficult to discover, after thinking for a second, that bin Laden is a beneficiary of the Iraq War. At least, this war has distracted U.S. Army forces from hunting bin Laden.

The exposed information from WikiLeaks revealed that, because the United States’ military revenge actions after 9/11 — the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — had swayed Islamic regimes and sovereignty, these Middle East governments bore a bitter hatred for bin Laden. For the Middle East chaos — from the Tunisian revolution to the collapse of Mubarak’s 40-year autocracy; from Yemen’s turbulent situation to the increasingly intense Libyan civil war, as well as Syria’s exacerbating situation — all of these seem to be the result of bin Laden’s ploy. Maybe now Americans have realized bin Laden’s initial intention. Before the collapse of Mubarak’s government, America’s renowned radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh incessantly admonished the U.S. government not to abandon its ally Mubarak and not to be duped by al-Qaida’s trap. Nevertheless, after the Americans found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, even though Americans were aware of bin Laden’s trickery, they took the wrong and made the best of it.

Hoping to prevent bin Laden’s grave from becoming a site of holy pilgrimage for Islamic extremists, the U.S. Army “placed” bin Laden in the Arabian Sea, where he’ll continue his games. How will this puzzling and mysterious game unfold? What role does the U.S. military play in this game? The more “interesting parts” of the game are yet to come, but I hope for no more innocent deaths.

The author is a professor at San Diego Mesa College.