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Volume CXXXII, Number 15 |
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Bin Laden's strategy
KATHERINE CRANE
COLUMNIST
Who knew how dangerous it could be to be called an infidel
by Osama bin Laden?
Up until Tuesday, when an Arab television station broadcast an audiotape
of bin Laden speaking to the Iraqi people, it might have seemed that being
on his infidel list could only make you the enemy of a small chunk of
the Arab world. The lesson for Saddam Hussein, who joined that list on
Tuesday, is that if the terrorists don't get you, the Americans will.
In the tape, bin Laden exhorts all Muslims, but particularly Iraqis, to
fight against an American invasion of Iraq. He speaks of the distaste
that good Muslims will feel toward Saddam Hussein's "apostate"
government, but urges them to fight against the Americans nonetheless.
The Bush Administration, which for months has been trying frantically
to prove a link between Saddam and al-Qaeda, has seized upon the 16-minute
tape as the ultimate proof of an "unholy partnership" between
the two. Bin Laden has expressed support for Iraq, the reasoning goes;
therefore he must have a longstanding alliance with Saddam Hussein. In
Bush's interpretation of the tape, bin Laden's attempts to rouse the Arab
world against Saddam are just camouflage to keep the U.S. from guessing
at the connection.
This could only be the case if Bush were less obviously determined to
link Saddam to al-Qaeda. Considering that the government's reaction to
the tape was entirely predictable, it is only reasonable to assume that
bin Laden predicted it. Bin Laden had to know that the U.S. was so desperate
to find a connection between him and Iraq that even the faintest hint
of one could be a pretext for war.
Bin Laden also had to know that Saddam Hussein does not want a war with
the United States, since Bush's stated purpose for such a war is to liberate
the Iraqi people from Saddam's oppressive regime. Yet with the war, according
to Bush, only weeks away, bin Laden is doing everything he can to bring
it even closer. If this is what bin Laden is like as an ally, we're probably
better off having him as an enemy.
However, if bin Laden is in fact Saddam Hussein's enemy as well as ours,
his actions become much clearer. A war between the U.S. and Iraq will
further divide the Arab world from the Western world, and will give more
credibility to bin Laden's image of the Americans as crusading Christians.
It will also make the world a safer place for bin Laden, since the U.S.
will be too busy fighting phantom terrorists to bother about chasing down
a real one.
While bin Laden dangles his supposed connection to Saddam Hussein in front
of George Bush like a chew toy in front of a dog, he is also telling his
Muslim followers that he does not approve of Saddam Hussein, but he does
approve of fighting against the United States. If fighting the Americans
means that they eventually oust or kill Saddam, that shouldn't worry the
Iraqis, because Saddam is an infidel. And once the Americans have gotten
rid of Saddam's regime, bin Laden's supporters can replace it with one
that is more sympathetic to al-Qaeda.
Bin Laden has chosen to have many enemies, and he is very skilled at using
them against each other. By giving his support to the Iraqi people but
not to Saddam, he has instructed the United States to attack Saddam, and
the Iraqi people to attack the Americans. It's hard to tell about the
Iraqis, but the U.S. seems to be following orders.
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