Writing in today’s Washington Post, former CIA agent and former head of the National Counterterrorism Center and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center argues that the U.S. and its allies have lost sight of the fact that, for al Qaeda, terrorism is merely a means to an end.
Terrorism, in bin Laden’s strategy, is only a tactic, a means to achieve what he believes is a providentially ordained objective — global domination by an Islamic caliphate. Yet dangerously, the United States is focusing on countering that tactic, missing the growth of the extremist Islamic forest as we flounder among the terrorist trees. Maybe it’s because we have led ourselves to believe that the term “al Qaeda” means “Kill Americans.” It doesn’t. It means “foundation” or “base” in Arabic. Bin Laden chose the word intentionally and cleverly. He knew that his battle-hardened core of veterans from the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s would serve only as the foundational wellspring to irrigate fields of political, social and economic discontent among the Muslim masses.
And, as Brennan points out, one could make the case that the progress toward that ultimate goal of an Islamic caliphate is continuing at a far better pace than we would like to believe:
Osama bin Laden’s plan to use terrorism to trigger an Islamic reawakening that will challenge Western dominance of world events and assure the ascendancy of Sunni extremists is moving forward — at an alarming rate.
Hibernating securely somewhere along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, bin Laden and his Egyptian sidekick, Ayman al-Zawahiri, must be deriving warmth from the fact that the Iraqi insurgency has taken on a decidedly Sunni extremist coloration; that Hamas has successfully exploited political opportunities in Palestine; that radicals within Europe’s Muslim communities are gaining strength and destructive force; and that caricatures of the prophet Muhammad have led to violence even among Muslims not inclined toward terrorism.
I think this is where the Bush Administration has made a mistake in the way it characterizes the War on Terror. From 9/11 onward, we’ve been told that the terrorists are coming after us because they hate our way of life and our freedom. That may be true, but that isn’t the reason that al Qaeda has engaged in the tactics that it has used; everything has been a means to the end of creating a caliphate. Not recognizing that and prosecuting the War on Terror in a way that recognizes it could be a mistake.
While al Qaeda has been rocked by a well-financed and increasingly successful international counterterrorism effort, there is no equivalent successful campaign to counter bin Laden’s strategic plan and vision. Sunni extremist activists roam virtually unchallenged in the Islamic world, spreading political and ideological seeds among a younger generation thirsting for attention, power and celestial reward.
In other words, bin Laden, as repugnant as he is, appears to have some appeal across the Muslim world. Part of that is due to the fact that most leaders of this countries are corrupt dictators more concerned with preserving their own power than dealing with the fact that they have a population among them that is increasingly receptive to a message of hate. Nothing demonstrates that better than the near universal, almost psychotic, reaction to the Mohammed cartoons across the Muslim world.
It would be in the United States’s best interests to locate and deal with bin Laden sooner rather than later, to undercut his image of invincibility among his followers. But whether his ultimate demise is the result of a well-targeted missile, disease or old age, his days are numbered. His strategic plan, however, has the disturbing potential to live on — unless we are able to ensure that his vision, his values, his followers and he himself are discredited in the Islamic fields he has so adeptly cultivated.
As Brennan points out, if we are going to truly succeed in the War on Terror, we need to find a way to counter bin Laden’s vision and appeal to Muslims across the world. If not, then his predicution of a final end-of-the-world type battle between Western civilization and Islam may yet come true.
Technorati Tags: Islam, Radical Islam, War on Terror, bin Laden, al Qaeda
