print“Many factors have combined to mythologize Osama bin Laden. The ineptness of his enemies, for one: that we Americans have been incapable of capturing him does wonders for the fugitive’s status. The pulp-press bin Laden gets helps too. The title of CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour’s documentary about the man—’In the Footsteps of Bin Laden’—is a play on an idiom that suggests reverence.
For her production, Amanpour even managed to dredge, among many other character witnesses, a swaddled female fan, who went into raptures over the arch-terrorist. Amanpour also labored bin Laden’s Scarlet-Pimpernel qualities—the manner in which he would materialize and dematerialize mysteriously for his spectacular cameos. This enhanced his elusive aura (although in reality, I’m sure perfectly prosaic things such as cars and camels were involved in schlepping him here and there).
But bin Laden is not what he is made out to be. A clue to his limitations came when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ignored his request, via Ayman al-Zawahiri, to quit killing so many Shia in Iraq. And now two books, published earlier this year, and reviewed by Max Rodenbeck in the New York Review of Books, expose yet more frailties in bin Laden’s façade…”
Here’s the complete WorldNetDaily.com column, “Calling Bin Laden’s Bluff.”
Ilana:
Amanpour’s documentary, and ABC’s docudrama on 911 together tell a story about Bin Laden – not as a religious icon, but as a bumbling secular thug who used the Islam to seduce fools who did his dirty work.
These TV series did not pretend to be historically accurate; they merely reported “conventional wisdom” as we know it. And I believe they both did quite a good job.
For “historical accuracy” a higher standard is needed:
VDH says it well:
http://jewishworldreview.com/1006/hanson101206.php3
It will be many years before this standard is achieved. In the meantime, we have nothing more than “conventional wisdom” – for the media, what is required is a disclaimer (I am unsure if this was done) that this is NOT “History”, but what people believe happened.
I recently bought a used copy from Amazon of Sufi writer Idries Shah’s only work of fiction, Kara Kush: a novel of Afghanistan, published in 1986. It’s been a long time since I read it, but it seems evident that the fictional Kara Kush, “the Eagle” is based on the real “Lion of the Panshir”.
I have no idea how accurate details of Afghan culture and life are, but the author offers fascinating claims such as; the second largest tribe in Afghanistan are called the Bani Israel and say they are descended from Abraham the Jew.
I look forward to rereading it after twenty years, in the light of all that has happened since.
http://rantsand.blogspot.com/
There are two things to consider when looking at the various icons of Jihad. First, as you noted, they often seem to have been abetted by the fools, regardless of which administration to which they belong, who implement American foreign policy, and by the more current fools who haven’t the backbone or skill to eliminate them. Secondly, we look at the Bin Ladens and Arafats of the Muslim world as all seeing and all powerful leaders of a vast network of spies, assassins and soldiers. It seems to me that the whole thing is a conglomeration of jihadist loonies, loosley held together by hatred of the US and Israel. There are certainly well-organized and well-financed groups involved, but overall we are facing a disorganized bunch of fanatics who are capable of any action. This disorganization, along with our preoccupation with a few major players like Bin Laden, makes the whole thing a real tough deal to fight.
Besides, if we weren’t such timid sisters, Bin Laden would have been eliminated long ago.
US troops invited into Saudi Arabia? You weaken your own argument. Bush bullied and lied his armies into Saudi Arabia; scaring the bejeebers out of the Saud family with assertions that US satellite photos showed 1,500 Iraqi tanks and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi shocktroops amassed on the border. To this day, the “photos” have not been declassified; but France also had satellites overhead, and their contemporaneous photos show no tanks..no troops.
I liked your article today regarding Bin Laden. It is true that even our press refuses to see the past, and use it to assist in shaping opinions on the present. I have a theory about that, however. I think that most of those that produce things like Christiane does are too lazy themselves to go looking hard enough to form a really intelligent opinion. Instead, they are prostitutes to the machine that pays their bills. They write what is politically correct, and will not cause too many ripples in their editorial sessions, or with the ownership/management of the news machines that spew their half-truths.
We run around telling he world we are “the most powerful country on planet earth”, yet, we haven’t won anything since Korea. We were kicked out of Viet Nam, same in Somalia. We invaded countries like Panama, Granada and Dominican Republic and created nothing but chaos. No wonder we can’t get Bin Laden. Unfortunately, North Korea and Iran are calling our bluff, now what?
Mrs. Mercer: I was deeply disappointed that my prior comment was deleted. As a U.S. Army veteran during the Viet Nam conflict, I can assure you that half of what is truly going on an the battle field, is NEVER known to the American public.Now, if you only allowed a one-sided opinion on your blog, it’s understandable and nowadays, it wouldn’t surprise me. Thanks for the opportunity anyway.
[The only comment received from you before these is at the “Rotten Reporting” post. I think you lost track of it, but it’s there.]