Osama Bin Laden Heading Toward Victory

Contrary to George W. Bush’s claims, experts recognize that Osama Bin Laden’s publicly stated goal has not been to “destroy freedom” but rather to topple Arab governments that he believes put Western interests ahead of their own citizens. Bin Laden's World Trade Center attack sought to define him and his allies as the Arab world’s leading force against accommodation to the West, and was part of a longterm goal of toppling pro-Western governments in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt. Given Bin Laden’s publicly stated goal, the United States and Israel could have responded by boosting secular Middle Eastern governments. Instead, America has spent $300 billion and lost nearly 3000 American lives overthrowing Bin-Laden adversary Sadaam Hussein in Iraq, only to replace him with a pro-fundamentalist government. Israel has thrown the majority secular government of Lebanon into disarray, and through the bombing of civilians has increased popular resentment of secular, pro-Western governments throughout the Arab world. No wonder Bin Laden sought to keep the Bush Administration in power by publicly calling for his defeat right before the 2004 election, an announcement that polls show may have cost Kerry the race.