Bin Laden Protesters Are Not Irrational

May 9, 2011 at 10:26 AM

By Bonnie Kristian

As might have been expected, protests have erupted in the Middle East against the U.S. over the death of Osama bin Laden.

Now, obviously bin Laden did some awful things and was, to one degree or another, responsible for the unwarranted death of many. However, these protesters — though perhaps uneducated, or to some extent misinformed — are not irrational; they’re protesting with…I hesitate to say “good reason,” given the more harmful courses of action sometimes taken… but certainly with a reason. It’s the same reason bin Laden’s cause was popular, and it’s written right on their signs: They want to be left alone — and U.S. foreign policy persistently doesn’t do that.

As the former chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit Michael Scheuer wrote about bin Laden and his supporters, "The focused and lethal threat posed to U.S. national security arises not from Muslims being offended by what America is, but rather from their plausible perception that the things they most love and value—God, Islam, their brethren, and Muslim lands—are being attacked by America." Or, to put it more simply, "They hate us for what we do, not who we are."

As bin Laden himself wrote, "Is it in any way rational to expect that after America has attacked us for more than half a century, that we will then leave her to live in security and peace?!! .... America does not understand the language of manners and principles, so we are addressing it using the language it understands."

Again, I am by no means justifying bin Laden's chosen reaction to American imperialism. Murder is wrong, not matter the motivating grievance. I am saying, however, that the man wasn't insane, and neither are these protesters. Moreover, as Einstein famously put it, the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Our foreign policy has reached a point of insanity: We intervene and occupy and generally stick our noses where they do not belong and most definitely are not wanted...and then we perpetually wonder why our noses keep getting cut. But it doesn't have to be this way. As Ron Paul has written [emphasis mine]:

It is virtually impossible to stop determined suicide bombers. Understanding why they sacrifice themselves is crucial to ending what appears to be senseless and irrational. But there is an explanation.

I, like many, have assumed that the driving force behind the suicide attacks was Islamic fundamentalism. Promise of instant entry into paradise as a reward for killing infidels seemed to explain the suicides, a concept that is foreign to our way of thinking. The world's expert on suicide terrorism has convinced me to rethink this simplistic explanation, that terrorism is merely an expression of religious extremism and resentment of a foreign culture.

Robert Pape, author of Dying to Win, explains the strategic logic of suicide terrorism. Pape has collected a database of every suicide terrorist attack between 1980 and 2004, all 462 of them. His conclusions are enlightening and crucial to our understanding the true motivation behind the attacks against Western nations by Islamic terrorists. After his exhaustive study, Pape comes to some very important conclusions.

Religious beliefs are less important than supposed. For instance, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist secular group, are the world's leader in suicide terrorism. The largest Islamic fundamentalist countries have not been responsible for any suicide terrorist attack. None have come from Iran or the Sudan. Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraq never had a suicide terrorist attack in all of its history. Between 1995 and 2004, the al Qaeda years, two-thirds of all attacks came from countries where the U.S. had troops stationed. Iraq's suicide missions today are carried out by Iraqi Sunnis and Saudis. Recall, 15 of the 19 participants in the 9/11 attacks were Saudis.

The clincher is this: the strongest motivation, according to Pape, is not religion but rather a desire "to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory the terrorists view as their homeland."

The best news is that if stopping suicide terrorism is a goal we seek, a solution is available to us. Cease the occupation of foreign lands and the suicide missions will cease. Between 1982 and 1986, there were 41 suicide terrorist attacks in Lebanon. Once the U.S., the French, and Israel withdrew their forces from Lebanon, there were no more attacks. The reason the attacks stop, according to Pape, is that the Osama bin Ladens of the world no longer can inspire potential suicide terrorists despite their continued fanatical religious beliefs.

Pape is convinced after his extensive research that the longer and more extensive the occupation of Muslim territories, the greater the chance of more 9/11-type attacks on the U.S. He is convinced that the terrorists strategically are holding off hitting the U.S. at the present time in an effort to break up the coalition by hitting our European allies. He claims it is just a matter of time if our policies do not change.

As Paul concludes, "It is time for us to consider a strategic reassessment of our policy of foreign interventionism, occupation, and nation-building. It is in our national interest to do so and in the interest of world peace."

From the looks of these protesters, it is high time indeed.

More photos are here.

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I'll split from you on this point - the system of governance that they want -is- inherently irrational. Remember, the theocratic regime in Iran was chosen by its populace - I expect a similar misuse of democracy in Egypt.

While their protests are potentially valid in other areas, they are not in the killing of Osama bin Laden. Sovereignty, like respect, is earned, and it is earned by granting sovereignty to its citizens and by properly instituting justice (I point this out acknowledging that no system of government, at present, deserves its sovereignty, but by degrees, some deserve it more than others). The Pakistanis may be upset that we went into their country without their permission, but every time that we asked for it previously, bin Laden was allowed to slip out.

Dont' get me wrong - we SHOULD stop our foreign aid and we SHOULD stop intervening in their affairs, but they interfered in ours previously, and in this instance, ours was the just course. Anger toward U.S. foreign policy in general may be rational, but anger at killing a mass murderer is not.

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The Pakistanis may be upset that we went into their country without their permission, but every time that we asked for it previously, bin Laden was allowed to slip out.

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