Here’s a link to the most recent Bin Laden audio tape transcription and translation:
Bin Laden transcription
This is important to read for many reasons. First, it shows that he is a thoughtful person. He isn’t crazy and mad as our government would like us all to believe. He is reasoned and smart. This is important to understand so that you know that level of competence we are dealing with. He isn’t some caricature of maddness. He is educated, and serious.
Second, the message we get in the west is extremely controlled. While there is no doubt Bin Laden is a terrorist and an enemy to America, this transcription gives you a unique opportunity to see the other side. You can only defeat your enemy by understanding him. Our government doesn’t like to give us this opportunity because it adds to the fog of war. Seeing that Bin Laden is a human with goals for his people makes the matter more complicated than our government thinks we are able to handle.
Third, his argument is compelling. He writes: “We are people who do not stand for injustice and we will seek revenge all our lives.” I’d say that’s hard to argue with. They hold grudges for hundreds of years. We likely are creating a resentment and hatred that will last for generations.
Don’t misread what I’m saying here. I’m not suggesting anything other than to go read the transcription and think about these things:
What does winning mean?
What is the goal here?
Is the goal for our enemies to say, “Truce, we give up?”
Is the goal for them to see that terrorism doesn’t pay?
How likely are those goals going to be accomplished with our current path?
Comments
2 responses to “Bin Laden Message: I encourage you to read this.”
Are you on drugs? It sounds like you’re sympathetic towards bin Laden. It sounds like the U.S. should say, “hey, dude, sorry, we accept the truce, we’ll leave you alone.”
Good idea, yeah? No. America will get even more complacent than it is now and all the while al Qaeda will plan, plan, plan then one day Boom Goes a Nuclear Device somewhere in downtown L.A. or D.C.
Look, even if we never even bothered them in the first place, they’d still want us dead. Don’t you see that? Don’t you know that? Radical Islamists want to spread their form of Islam AROUND THE WORLD destroying everything in its path.
How to defeat that? I don’t know. But to lay down arms and walk away and leave them alone: simply foolish. Why don’t we just bomb ourselves?
I was wondering if this post would cause a backlash response.
I’m not suggesting anything. That’s important to understand. I just want to show that this is more complicated than our leaders want us to believe.
We know this:
Bin Laden is our enemy. Al qaeda is our enemy. Hesbola is our enemy. Iraqi insurgents are our enemy. That list can go on and on. Then factions of certain groups are our enemy. Parts of Iran, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia. That list becomes even more long and much more gray.
What is the strategy when our enemy is not a state but a worldwide cause?
All I’m asking is: Are we attacking this correctly. Maybe we are. But maybe we aren’t. As Americans, we have to consider all of the options. But our government only wants us to believe one option… theirs.