Friday, October 3, 2008

Where is Usama Bin Laden anyway?


I would like to believe that this is the question of the decade. It certainly should be!

One of the difficulties we have been having in locating Bin Laden surrounds the issue of motive. What is he trying to accomplish - What does he want? Does he even
know what he wants beyond pain, bloodshed, and mayhem? My sense is that he does.

As individuals, and as nations, we tend to perceive the world around us in the context of our image and interests. Anyone who does not reflect the interests of ourselves, and our society, tends to be invisible at best. Usama Bin Laden has done a fine job of eluding us - is this related?
It may well be! We have placed ourselves at the center of Bin Laden's world, and at the focus of his cross-hairs, in the assumption that his goal is to defeat the United States, the West, and the non-Islamic world in general. More recently, Bin Laden has aimed his diatribes at Israel - Clearly then, he wishes to destroy the Jewish state.

Maybe it is time to consider the possibility that these are really
secondary goals! Consider them as major priorities subordinate to an even grander plan. This is where the self-image issue comes in to play. What grander or more devious plans could there possibly be beyond attacking and defeating the United States, or destroying Israel?

It is helpful to consider Usama Bin Laden's anachronistic mind set. He is immersed in a fantasy role-playing game, a variety of
Dungeons and Dragons built on a distorted view of Arabic history and Islam's Golden Age. He has fashioned himself a great warrior-prophet in the Islamic tradition - The heir to the legacy of Saladin, and the Khulafah Rashidun - The rightly guided Caliphs.

In this light one could assume that Mecca and Medina, the cities at the heart of Islam, would figure in his plans. We may be underestimating how important control of these sacred cities is to Usama Bin Laden. Maybe what he
really wants is the Ka'ba! Consider his actions to date as preludes, intended to prove to the Islamic world that he is the great Muslim warrior deserving of this prize.

Where ever he has chosen to hide, it is my firm belief that he has been very careful not to isolate himself from the Arabian peninsula, or do anything to preempt the opportunity to make his grand entrance to Islam's holiest shrine.