It's just life

I have been doing some reading about Osama Bin Laden today courtesy of Morgenbladet - in my opinion Norway's best newspaper. Being introduced to his thoughts and philosophy has been quite enlightening (read some of it here). Not only does it strike me that he is a very intelligent person, far above and beyond his arch nemesis George W. Bush, but that a lot of his perspectives on the world situation in general and the USA in particular are spot on.

Now, it comes as no surprise that his sense of morals are not that highly developed. He is a proponent of sharia laws and a society built on a conservative interpretation of Islam. Just like Bush is a proponent of US imperialism, authoritarian social structures and fundamentalist Christianity. Bush and Bin Laden are like twins separated at birth. They have almost identical moral and spiritual development, but they just happen to have been indoctrinated in two different religious-cultural backgrounds.

Anyway, Bin Laden claims that the US has absolutely no sense of morals at all, that they hold up standards they expect everyone but themselves to follow and if they are broken, than it validates armed conflict. He also claims that US citizens are brainwashed through mass media, meer sheep who have no real sense of what's going on, that they just do whatever the media tells them to. That propaganda machine Fox News is so popular is a good indication that there's some truth to the claim. He claims that the US is built on unhealthy value structures with a total worship of materialism and total ignorance of planetary issues and gives them the rather unflattering label as "the worst nation the world has ever seen".

One of his core claims is that Judeo-Christian religion and the US is on a crusade against the Muslim world and that the Muslim world must unite to protect Umma (the fellowship of believers) against the infidels. He calls for holy war, Jihad, to protect the values that he holds dear. He also believes that the US is controlled from Israel, that Jewish interests are so powerful that it in large part runs the USA and that the US is only a puppet of Israel. Harsh words, yet I have myself seen indications that Israeli lobbyists have more than a reasonable amount of influence on US politics.

What is so ironic from his writing is that it becomes obvious that Bin Laden is a product of the US. He is the materalization of US bad conscience and comes to punish them for what he considers their total lack of integrity and humanity. It's common knowledge that Osama was an ally of the US in Afghanistan when they were fighting the Soviets and that Al Qaida is in large part trained and equipped by the Americans. It is almost too much. When Bin Laden says that Jihad will stop when US and Israeli forces cease their crusade against the Muslim people, I actually believe him. From what I can see, he has much more integrity to his own value structures than his opponents. Whereas the US administration uses facts and claims only as tools to manipulate the masses, it seems clear that Bin Laden actually has total conviction about his cause and that temporarily changing perspective to achieve a goal is totally out of question.

One thing has always puzzled me. That is while pain and suffering is written all over the faces of the members of the US administration, Bin Laden looks like a calm, kind and gentle man. Looking at him, he seems to have no sense of inner turmoil. While I believe that the reality is very different, it speaks a clear language - Bin Laden believes in himself and his mission. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al don't believe in anything - they know that they're enemies of humanity, but more than that - enemies of themselves, but the knowledge sits so deep in their psyche that they cannot grasp it. So from dark corners of their subconscious it poisons their life experience no end (looking at Rumsfeld is like looking at a man that has been consumed by evil - it causes physical pain in my heart).

Anyway, I believe we must reconsider Osama Bin Laden's status as terrorist. He doesn't see himself as a terrorist at all - he is fighting a war to protect what he holds dear. In that regard, he is just the same as the USA. However, Osama is much smarter than the US administration - he is using them against themselves (his plan is to turn their own ignorance into weapons that they use against themselves in the battle against terrorism). As we can clearly see by now, Bin Laden's tactic is working a lot better than that of the US. The US is a dying empire, falling prey to its own greed and stupidity, and the means with which it's happening are so simple that it's almost painful to watch.

So in summation, while Bin Laden is clearly a dangerous and disturbed man, I think we owe him a more level-headed and integral interpretation of his actions. He is very, very smart, and he has some things to say that are worth listening to. Because in some ways I respect the integrity with which he's conducting his campaign of destruction. In a day and age where integrity is practically an urban legend in the Western world, Bin Laden shows what it can do if you just set your mind to it. Bush has in Bin Laden a formidable enemy, much smarter than he is himself. Yet really, they're one and the same. Disturbed, near-psychotic and completely deluded. If I thought the word had meaning, I'd say they were evil, but they're not - they're just lost in a world of their own making. Best friends and best enemies. They deserve each other.