The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden
by Peter Bergen
Simon and Schuster. 2021
Peter Bergen is a genuine expert on the middle east and Islamic terrorism. His new book about Bin Laden makes for excellent reading. This is comparable to Youssef Bodansky’s pre-9/11 biography about Bid Laden that was called “Bin Laden The Man Who Declared War On America”.
There is a good deal of information about Bin Laden’s life, his religious views, and politics that motivated him to become the world’s most notorious terrorist. There is interesting background about his family who were actually secular people. A family picture featuring his brothers and sisters shows the girls without any head coverings.
Bergen reveals that Bin Laden overestimated the abilities of his jihadists in the Afghani war against the Soviet Union. Bergen says the expulsion of the Soviet Union resulted from American support. Bin Laden believed that his group was instrumental in defeating the Soviets, and believed Al Quada (formed in Afghanistan in 1988) would defeat the United States as well.
Bin Laden was responsible for terror attacks against the United States in Somalia in 1993. He was responsible for bombing the American barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996. He and Al Quada were also responsible for the bombing of two American embassies in Africa in 1998.
Despite this growing campaign of terror the Clinton administration in 1996 turned down an offer from the Sudanese government (where Bin Laden was living at the time) to turn him over to Washington. The Clinton administration believed they had no legal basis for taking the proven murderer and terrorist into custody.
But the Clinton administration was not alone in screwing up. The Bush administration which took office in January 2001 did not consider Bin Laden a high priority. Bergen reveals the Bush administration was obsessed with invading Iraq. Assistant Secretary of Defense did not understand why the US should have been interested in one man.
Following the 9/11 attacks, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others worked to find a connection between Al Quada and Iraq. One of the most appalling failures of the Bush administration was in failing to kill Bin Laden in Tora Bora near the end of 2001. Bergen says the US failed to send more troops to ensure the death of the mass murderer. Bin Laden got away but Al Quada was at least decimated.
Until 2003, when the overthrow of the Iraqi government after the invasion that was ordered by the Bush administration gave Bin Laden’s group the opportunity to rebuild itself. The failures of both the Clinton and Bush administrations should be recalled today at a time when the Biden administration has blundered in Afghanistan.
Taken in context, screwing up the fight against terrorists seems to be the rule and not the exception. The Clinton administration permitted Bin Laden and Al Quada to grow in strength. I remember those days vividly as we were all preoccupied with Bill Clinton’s sexual proclivities with Monica.
The Bush administration failed to kill Bin Laden and then decided to go nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq. If there is anything the Bush and Clinton administrations had in common is that their cabinets all believed their own bullshit and propaganda. The Biden administration is more realistic in its rhetoric regarding Afghanistan but stupidly withdrew from Afghanistan in a way that permitted the Taliban to secure an unconditional victory.
The Obama administration’s success in tracking down and killing Bin Laden is recounted here. It is an instance when the Obama administration performed very well. This book is an excellent and informative read about the life of one of the world’s most evil terrorists.