Tom Engelhardt writes that America walked right into the trap bin Laden constructed for us. Plenty of Americans recognized this. We’re not altogether stupid. We are just in the habit of electing really bad leaders. The outcome? Too many of us don’t even know we’re in a trap. But Paris — part of our world — has just experienced another snap-crack of the trap closing…
The Paris attacks should not, however, be seen primarily as acts of revenge from a distinctly twisted crew, even though one of the murderers reportedly shouted, “You killed our brothers in Syria and now we are here.” Instead, they were clearly acts of calculated provocation meant to reshape our world in grim ways. Worse yet, their effectiveness was pre-guaranteed because, as has been true since 9/11, the leaders of such terror groups, starting with Osama bin Laden, have grasped the dynamics of our world, of what makes us tick and especially what provokes us into our own barbarous acts, so much better than our leaders, our militaries, or our national security states have understood them (or, for that matter, themselves).
Here in a nutshell is what bin Laden grasped before 9/11: with modest millions of dollars and a relatively small number of followers, he and his movement couldn’t hope to create the world of their fervid dreams. If, however, he could lure the planet’s “sole superpower” into stepping into his universe, military first, it would change everything and so do his work for him. And indeed (see: invasion of Afghanistan, invasion of Iraq), an operation mounted for an estimated $400,000 to $500,000, using 19 dedicated (mostly Saudi) followers armed only with paper cutters, did just that. …Engelhardt,TomDispatch
Engelhardt goes on to demonstrate how one presidential candidate after another — on the Republican side, at least — is walking naively and proudly into the trap he calls “the national security state’s incestuous relationship with the Islamic State.”
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
graphic via shutterstock.com