Before the September 11 attacks, Washington’s Neo-cons had waited in frustrated hope for an event that would serve as the excuse needed to enable them to rouse public support for a war against Iraq and other “rogue states” where they were sure American power could easily dispatch. Their project for the New American century proposed to remake the oil-rich-Middle-East in America’s image. Vice President Dick Cheney was also dreaming to restore the imperial presidency that had been lost with Richard Nixon’s Watergate.
In 1999, when George W. Bush was considering for the Presidency, he contracted with Houston Journalist Micky Herskowitz for a ghost-written autobiography. No more than two months passed before Bush’s team of advisors dismissed Herskowitz. The gregarious governor was telling Mickey too much. What’s interesting about the Russ Baker interview with Mickey Herskowitz is the reasons Bush gave for wanting to attack a small country: he wanted to emerge from his father’s shadow and become more popular.
From a strategic point of view the most effective way to fight terrorism is by intelligence operations and police work. However, for all the above reasons, militarizing the fight into a perpetual state of “war” would most easily facilitate the expansion of presidential powers.
On the other side of the world, the extremist Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were also making their plans. The people and government of Muslim nations from Algeria and Egypt, to Saudi Arabia and the Sudan, wanted to run the extremists out of their country, because they were inflicting violence to those they considered “not Muslim enough.” In Algeria the radicals had began eliminating each other over perceptions that many of their own members were not “pure enough.” For these reasons extremist Osama bin Laden had been chased from Saudi Arabia to the Sudan and then back to the caves of Afghanistan. Even in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar, concerned for the well-being of his Taliban government, had ordered bin Laden to quit giving interviews to the western press declaring jihad against Israel and the U.S.A.
Rudyard Kipling had described “Afghanistan” as the “place where empires go to die.” Bin Laden knew that, and believing that Israel and its supporter, the United States, were instruments of oppression for the muslim people, was looking for an opportunity to drag the United States into a long and costly war similar to that they had engaged the Soviet Union in the 1980s. They hoped to slowly wear Americans down as they had already succeeded with the Soviet forces. Their goal was to provoke such a heavy military response from the Americans that would offend the Muslim world, destabilize the region, and increase the oil prices (which were cheap through the previous two decades) bringing further damage to the American economy while the Middle East was prospering.
Of course Bin Laden was taking the risk that Americans would strike and destroy al-Qaeda in a way it would not alienate U.S. from the rest of the Muslims. But that did not happen. The Bush administration was not focusing its attention on bin-Laden, because they were planning to attack Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Instead of using U.S. troops to seal the border, President Bush relied on hired Pakistanis, who were receiving money also from Al-Qaeda! In the battle of Tora Bora the local “allies” who had mixed sympathies towards al-Qaeda, let many of them escapeā?¦ Marine officials, who foresaw Al-Qaeda’s strategic withdrawal from Tora Bora were not allowed to patrol the border and seal off bin Laden’s caves. Some reports suggest that bin-Laden had escaped by the end of November, 2001. A witness present in the Tora Bora claims that Osama escaped around December 10, 2001.
“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” George W. Bush, Washington, D.C. March 13, 2002. Six months after September 11.
President Bush should be grateful to Osama Bin Laden for his re-election in 2004, when the race for presidency was neck-to-neck with Democrat Kerry. While the Neo-con political adviser Karl Rove was orchestrating Bush’s image as “resolute” and Kerry’s as “weak flip-flopper,” Osama bin Laden released a tape saying “Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al-Qaeda. Your security is in your hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked.” Bin Laden knew that by demanding the Americans to surrender, they would proudly want to fight back and consequently vote for the “resolute” presidential candidate Bush instead of the “weak” Kerry. Bin Laden knew that Bush would continue his clumsy war in Iraq that depleted our economy and deteriorated diplomatic relations with Middle East.
The war on Iraq was not as easy as Americans had expected. Sad to admit, the “war on terror” made Americans fall in bin Laden’s trap, resulting to all the things that Bin Laden had wanted. One of the things that bin Laden demanded years ago was the oil should cost $144 barrel, Charles Edmund writes in “W got his war” of The Coyote Report.
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About The Author: Coddie Adwar writes exclusively for THE COYOTE REPORT, a POLITICAL NEWS BLOG, the home of “GOOD RIDDANCE BUSH, THE END OF AN ERROR“ bumper stickers. and “W GOT HIS WAR” e-book written by Charles Edmund Coyote Get a FREE CHAPTER on how we let bin LADEN escape from Tora Bora.
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