Nontrivial Pursuits

Nontrivial Pursuits links of interest:
Republican Nemesis
Economic Justice

What do I think about Bin Laden’s latest taped message?

I think it has been misinterpreted.

Yes, on the surface it sounds as though Bin Laden is trying to get the attention of the American people. His purpose seems to be to persuade them to stop supporting Bush’s war. Of course, the Bush administration is promoting this interpretation in order to portray any who might oppose the war (e.g., Michael Moore) as allies of Bin Laden.

I think something far more sophisticated is going on.

Let’s remember that we Americans have underestimated Bin Laden and his cohort before. We did not think them capable of sophisticated thought, of being able to plan out and execute the Nine Eleven attack. I think we are still a little too eager to believe that Bin Laden is just a foolish Arab murderer who can’t possibly have a good grasp of motivational psychology.

We laugh at the mad man’s foolish attempts to terrorize the American people with words and scare them into submission, but I submit that Bin Laden’s message was constructed with one audience in particular in mind, and that audience was not the American people. Rather, I think his message was intended for (A) his followers, and for (B) those whom he is trying to recruit to his cause.

I’ll grant that he might have held out a little bit of hope that his message might somehow inspire a few dim-witted soccer moms (his perception) to rally to his cause, but I don’t read the man as being quite that incredibly stupid. I would suggest, instead, that his real purpose was simply to produce a public statement that would serve to fortify the morale of his “troops in the field.” If you’ve read the text of Bin Laden’s message, read it again with this possibility in mind.

Notice that throughout his message, he is defining the holy warriors of Al-Qaeda as not only virtuous [in their eyes], but also as reasonable and willing to call an end to the fighting on ‘just terms.’ Such words may not be persuasive to Americans, but they are likely to be effective in encouraging Bin Laden’s ‘mujahideen’ to perceive their actions and sacrifices as supremely noble.

Bin Laden’s primary target audience is his devoted followers, and then also those whom he hopes to recruit to his cause. Young Arab males who are feeling incensed by the injustice they perceive could conceivably be persuaded by Bin Laden’s words to see the Al-Qaeda cause as both virtuous and reasonable instead of just driven by blood lust and xenophobic hatred, as the American-backed government in Baghdad portrays them.

Perhaps that is the main purpose of this latest Bin Laden tape, to answer the criticism of Al-Qaeda that has been expressed in certain quarters of the Arab world lately. Achieving that purpose through a speech supposedly directed at the American people is not an inspiration that requires cleverness as much as it does intuition.

I would like to suggest that we try not to underestimate this man’s methods and purposes again.

James Kroeger<—c19e0291e7f2b970bd981d591f4433bf—>

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