And Iraq and Afghanistan and their tragedies; and the reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes; and the abject poverty and tragic hunger in Africa; all of this is but one side of the grim face of this global system.
Related in Slate
Daniel Benjamin speculated whether Bin Laden hoped his video released on the eve of the 2004 presidential elections would help elect Bush. William Saletan attacked the Bush administration's failure to adequately rebut Bin Laden's October 2001 video call for a global Muslim uprising. Timothy Noah argued for questioning the authenticity of the al-Qaida leader's Sept. 11, 2001, message denying his involvement in the World Trade Center attacks. Michael Young profiled the non-Al Jazeera Arabic news channels and their coverage of the Iraq war.
Dennis Kucinich? Naomi "No Logo" Klein? Daniel "Dany the Red" Cohn-Bendit? If you guessed "none of the above," you are either an astute observer of the anti-globalization movement, or you have already read a transcript of Osama Bin Laden's latest video production. If so, you will also know that Bin Laden, after denouncing the "capitalist system," which "seeks to turn the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations," calls for Americans to convert to Islam because, among other things, taxes are lower in Islamic states. It's a genuinely bizarre, almost ridiculous document—and before it is forgotten in the coming debate on Gen. David Petraeus' Iraq report, it's worth spending a few minutes, on the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, trying to understand what it might mean.
I am not alone, I should note, in wondering whether a man who is supposedly hiding in the Hindu Kush could possibly care about the "insane taxes and real estate mortgages" endured by Americans. A number of commentators are suspicious about the video, in which Bin Laden has dyed his beard jet black—either a sign he intends to renew his jihad or evidence that the tape, though authenticated by the CIA, is fake. Others wonder whether the speech, which makes approving references to the wisdom of Noam Chomsky yet garbles the chronology of the Vietnam War, might actually have been written by Adam Gadahn, an American who does English-language propaganda for al-Qaida, has been indicted for treason, and now features on a Department of Justice "wanted" Web site, along with Bin Laden himself.
Real or fake, the message might still hint at the direction in which al-Qaida propaganda, or at least al-Qaida propaganda designed for the Western market, is now heading. In a recent Slate piece, Reza Aslan eloquently described how the organization's list of alleged "grievances"—which now include global warming, corporate capitalism, and African poverty, as well as the American bases in Saudi Arabia—weave "local and global resentments into a single anti-American narrative, the overarching aim of which is to form a collective identity across borders and nationalities." But the narrative clearly isn't meant for only the Arab world. On the contrary, perhaps it's time to take the main message seriously: Clearly, al-Qaida's long-term goal is to convert Americans and other Westerners to its extreme version of Islam.
Before you fall over laughing, think again. It would only take a very few such converts to do a lot of damage. The results of the Soviet Union's massive propaganda campaign on behalf of world Marxist revolution were also numerically small, but at the time, they were considered very effective: the Baader-Meinhof gang, the Italian Red Brigades, the Weather Underground. There are always disaffected young people—Gadahn is a former fan of "death metal" rock bands—and they're always looking for a cause. Conversion in general is increasingly common across Europe. Some 4,000 Germans were found to convert annually in a recent study, and if only 0.1 percent of them choose the jihadist version of Islam, that's enough to cause trouble.
For, as news from Germany well illustrates, there is nothing quite so passionate as a recent convert. At least two of the men recently arrested and accused of plotting to bomb American interests in Germany were converts. So were Richard Reid, the failed shoe-bomber, and Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen who was suspected of constructing a dirty bomb, though not convicted for that crime. (Daniel Benjamin provides an even more extensive list of jihadist converts.)
It is legitimate, of course, to ask whether it matters what is said by a man who is no longer thought to be in control of his organization, even if he still has access to a video camera inside his cave. But that's precisely the point. Osama will sooner or later die or be captured. But he, or someone close to him, is now trying to ensure that his ideology lives on. And he, or someone, wants it to survive in a form that will appeal to Americans and other Westerners disillusioned with their own political system. To put it bluntly, someone with an Irish or Hispanic name could have a better chance of slipping past the FBI, or through airport security, than someone named Mohammed. In a world in which counterintelligence and security procedures will slowly, slowly improve—that's the future.
Osama's Vision of the Future: The real message of Bin Laden's bizarre video rant.
Anne Applebaum is a Washington Post and Slate columnist. Her most recent book isGulag: A History.
Image of Osama Bin Laden in a recently released video by AFP/Getty Images. Image of Osama Bin Laden on Slate's home page by AFP/Getty Images.
COMMENTS
Remarks from the Fray:
Still one wonders what the point is. Specifically what is the point of this global jihad? I find it hard to believe that a guy who's never been out of the Middle East wants to convert Americans to his cause (and if he does he's a pretty bad strategist)
But, really, why is his cause-trying to emulate the Baader-Meinhof gang, the Italian Red Brigades, the Weather Underground? Those guys were almost the definition of futility in action. Grant it an "American" convert to Al-Qaeda would be more valuable then a foreigner, but more valuable for what? Blowing things up.
That doesn't seem to be a well thought out long term plan. For all the time spent on trying to get these guys vs. them trying to get us neither side articulates long term objectives very well.
I don't think Applebaum is correct in assuming that BL is aiming this at the American 'market'. It is aimed at the converted. What is the point of trying to convert a few alienated twits in the US? The aim is to convert more of the Faithful to a more radical brand of Islam. Ironically he is trying to do this by suggesting that his version is actually more tolerant and kind.
However, it is the kind of speech that I can hear being applauded and accompanied by yay-shouting, all over the Moslem world - because they already believe most of what BL says: that a theocratic Moslem world system would be the most benevolent, and as proof they would say that BL is still reaching out to the US with a kind hand, asking them to 'see reason' and stop their brutality. The conversion of a few dopes in the West would simply be a fringe benefit.
The simple fact is that Bin Laden HAS had more effect on the world than he could ever have hoped, but his single achievement was to give the fanatics, radicals and crooks of the West a chance to do things they could NEVER have contemplated without his activities. Since he probably wants an Armageddon, Bin Laden probably is happy to see the explosion of fanaticism on all sides. The rest of us should be appalled, both by him and the US response.
Bin Laden may be a thoroughly psychotic and or fanatical person. But you're only returning emotional violence for emotional violence in your piece about his latest missive.
In my professional world, we argue that even psychopaths are partly reasonable, have a grain of truth and that grain of truth is like a very thin fingerhold is to a mountain climber. It's the difference that can make all the difference.
Bin Laden identifies not only with the strange, tyrannical purposes of radical Islam but also with the plight of America's victims. That's why so many Islamic moderates I talk with are not as ardently against him as we might hope. Just as Bush identified with children left behind by the educational system, Bin Laden identifies with the 500,000 children who died for lack of chlorine, which we sanctioned. Perhaps we did the right thing, but no government official has ever expressed any concern for those kids and their survivors. That's the kind of inhumanity that at least partly accounts for the fervor of the terrorists. To dismiss their feeling for our victims makes zero sense unless you believe that people can be purely psychopathic and or fanatic.
Most people do believe they can. But most of us in the social sciences disagree. We need to get this message out, the message that we need to relate to the best motivations of the terrorists and respond empathically to them. Profound expressions of respect and caring, as St. Patrick showed in transforming barbaric Ireland, are much more powerful than what we're doing.
Much analysis of the OBL video - from the significance of that ebony beard to the bizarre sub-prime market references - is entertaining but also a distraction from a more pressing issue: the weakening of the west's influence in a region which is fast descending into chaos.
Bin Laden himself is dead or contained in some tribal village in Waziristan, while our so-called allies in Pakistan have overseen a rejuvenation of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, indirectly by leaving them be and directly by - via their intelligence establishment - pumping them dollars, guns and muscle. By every available measure, Musharraf has made things worse for the west. Radical madrassas? In 2003 he said he would regulate them but they tripled, unregulated. Banned terror groups? In 2002 virtually all were banned, until 2005 when they were unbanned.
New intelligence also shows how the so-called AQ Khan affair was not the responsibility of one man but the foreign policy of a nation state - selling WMDs to fund its military and make political pacts.
And this is our best ally in the region? How soon before we stop talking about bin Laden and start talking about Musharraf. If ever a country was ripe for regime change, it's Pakistan.
After the Wall Tumbled In 1989, Central Europe's fate was supposed to be uncertain and bleak. Today the region prospers more than ever. Anne Applebaum | Nov. 9, 2009
Schabowski Shrugged The unanswered phone calls and misunderstood memos that helped bring down the Berlin Wall. Michael Meyer | Nov. 5, 2009
And now, ladies and gentlemen, time for a quiz. Three guesses as to who said this: 
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Remarks from the Fray:
Still one wonders what the point is. Specifically what is the point of this global jihad? I find it hard to believe that a guy who's never been out of the Middle East wants to convert Americans to his cause (and if he does he's a pretty bad strategist)
But, really, why is his cause-trying to emulate the Baader-Meinhof gang, the Italian Red Brigades, the Weather Underground? Those guys were almost the definition of futility in action. Grant it an "American" convert to Al-Qaeda would be more valuable then a foreigner, but more valuable for what? Blowing things up.
That doesn't seem to be a well thought out long term plan. For all the time spent on trying to get these guys vs. them trying to get us neither side articulates long term objectives very well.
--Doug Graves
(To reply, click here.)
I don't think Applebaum is correct in assuming that BL is aiming this at the American 'market'. It is aimed at the converted. What is the point of trying to convert a few alienated twits in the US? The aim is to convert more of the Faithful to a more radical brand of Islam. Ironically he is trying to do this by suggesting that his version is actually more tolerant and kind.
However, it is the kind of speech that I can hear being applauded and accompanied by yay-shouting, all over the Moslem world - because they already believe most of what BL says: that a theocratic Moslem world system would be the most benevolent, and as proof they would say that BL is still reaching out to the US with a kind hand, asking them to 'see reason' and stop their brutality. The conversion of a few dopes in the West would simply be a fringe benefit.
The simple fact is that Bin Laden HAS had more effect on the world than he could ever have hoped, but his single achievement was to give the fanatics, radicals and crooks of the West a chance to do things they could NEVER have contemplated without his activities. Since he probably wants an Armageddon, Bin Laden probably is happy to see the explosion of fanaticism on all sides. The rest of us should be appalled, both by him and the US response.
--distantvoice
(To reply, click here.)
Bin Laden may be a thoroughly psychotic and or fanatical person. But you're only returning emotional violence for emotional violence in your piece about his latest missive.
In my professional world, we argue that even psychopaths are partly reasonable, have a grain of truth and that grain of truth is like a very thin fingerhold is to a mountain climber. It's the difference that can make all the difference.
Bin Laden identifies not only with the strange, tyrannical purposes of radical Islam but also with the plight of America's victims. That's why so many Islamic moderates I talk with are not as ardently against him as we might hope. Just as Bush identified with children left behind by the educational system, Bin Laden identifies with the 500,000 children who died for lack of chlorine, which we sanctioned. Perhaps we did the right thing, but no government official has ever expressed any concern for those kids and their survivors. That's the kind of inhumanity that at least partly accounts for the fervor of the terrorists. To dismiss their feeling for our victims makes zero sense unless you believe that people can be purely psychopathic and or fanatic.
Most people do believe they can. But most of us in the social sciences disagree. We need to get this message out, the message that we need to relate to the best motivations of the terrorists and respond empathically to them. Profound expressions of respect and caring, as St. Patrick showed in transforming barbaric Ireland, are much more powerful than what we're doing.
--Preach
(To reply, click here.)
Much analysis of the OBL video - from the significance of that ebony beard to the bizarre sub-prime market references - is entertaining but also a distraction from a more pressing issue: the weakening of the west's influence in a region which is fast descending into chaos.
Bin Laden himself is dead or contained in some tribal village in Waziristan, while our so-called allies in Pakistan have overseen a rejuvenation of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, indirectly by leaving them be and directly by - via their intelligence establishment - pumping them dollars, guns and muscle. By every available measure, Musharraf has made things worse for the west. Radical madrassas? In 2003 he said he would regulate them but they tripled, unregulated. Banned terror groups? In 2002 virtually all were banned, until 2005 when they were unbanned.
New intelligence also shows how the so-called AQ Khan affair was not the responsibility of one man but the foreign policy of a nation state - selling WMDs to fund its military and make political pacts.
And this is our best ally in the region? How soon before we stop talking about bin Laden and start talking about Musharraf. If ever a country was ripe for regime change, it's Pakistan.
--fission
(To reply, click here.)
(9/14)