It's remarkable to me how two of history's latest, greatest buffoons—George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden—after years of lurking in relative obscurity, came to prominence onto the world stage about the same time, just in time to do extraordinary damage.
Both are megalomaniacs, incompetent scions of wealthy families, fundamentalist believers in warped views of G-d and humans, leaders of sheep-like followers, morally and spiritually bankrupt, and shadowy, imperious "leaders" whose personal pissing match ("you dis'spected mah daddy" vs. "damn you li'l bush") has drawn us into the wars a select few are fighting on both sides today (y'know, while they and their children stay out of harm's way...the harm they've created?).
We all know about the shifting rationales for going to war in Iraq:
• It's the WMD! Detroit will go up in a mushroom cloud!
• Oops! There's no WMD! We must bring democracy to Iraqis!
• Oops! No one asked the Iraqis if they wanted democracy! Why, then, we must be fighting the terrorists over there to avoid fighting them here! Yes, that's it!
• Never mind! [Insert Jedi Mind Trick Here] The war's about American Security, world security, social security...ummm...
• No, no, it's about world peace...whirled peas...oil...whateva...
Feh!
No wonder the commanders and troops I've spoken with returning from Iraq shake their heads in disgust—Gen. Petraus notwithstanding—and call this fiasco a "deployment in search of a mission."
Osama bin Laden is no better. Prior to 2004, he didn't give a rat's ass about the Palestinians, only using their cause occasionally to lambaste the Saudis for "abandoning them."
In the book Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, editor Bruce Lawrence titles bin Laden's first public pronouncement (An Open Letter to Shaykh Bin Baz on the Invalidity of his Fatwa on Peace with the Jews)The Betrayal of Palestine, but the cynical use of the Palestinians really has more to do with bin Laden's tirade against the Saudis, who had just stripped him of citizenship. In short, the Palestinian cause (which is just) is thrown in with everything else to enhance credibility.
Sound familiar?
Bin Baz (1909-1999), who was one of those Muslim moderates you never hear about in our jingoistic press, defended himself quite eloquently against bin Laden's tantrum by pointing to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (between the Prophet, leading the state of Medina, and the Quraishi tribe of Mecca, in 628 CE), which allowed Muslims to worship at Mecca. Bin Baz notes that this treaty, like the Oslo accords that bin Laden is attacking in his 1994 letter, was significant because in its execution, the Prophet establishes the precedent that a peace treaty with non-Muslims is preferable if it can avoid the loss of life.
Between 1994 and 2004, bin Laden said his jihad against us was because of imperialism, oil, blasphemy against the Prophet, collusion with Israel, Dutch cartoons, the invasion of Iraq, oil, Hollywood promiscuity, global warming, the Kyoto protocol, interest-bearing loans, Muslim infidels, the invasion of Afghanistan, oil...
Sound familiar?
And now, in May of 2008, Mr. bin Laden has rediscovered the cause of the Palestinians and taken it up with fervor:
"We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on earth..."
Riiight.
Just as Bush uses pseudo-religious speak to forward his ridiculous aims, bin Laden covers his attempt at a Middle East power grab with a veneer of religious "truth," which is really just more hypocrisy. He's a political terrorist, not a religious one, and what Lord Palmerston wrote 140 years ago is true of Bush and bin Laden:
"Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests."
Hey, any "interest" (justification) will do when you're a "leader," won't it?
I am writing this because I have heard some of my dear friends, wonderful people who genuinely care about the Palestinians and the Israelis (and have worked with both groups here and in Palestine), and want to find a solution to ME peace, who will point to bin Laden's latest screed as a pronouncement of Palestinian grievances.
Oy!
Like Bush's proclamations involving the war on terror and the war in Iraq, the two are separate issues. The Palestinian cause is just and right, and needs to be fought on the field of negotiation and compromise, which both Israelis and Palestinians overwhelmingly want. We mustn't let them become muddled by idiot "leaders" like these who half-ass (Bush), half-negotiate (Olmert, Hamas), or vehemently oppose it (bin Laden).
Please, let me be clear:
• Both bin Laden and Bush are leaders continually urging a fight for personal gain rather than any real cause.
• Both are liars, bending the words of Prophets and Priests for their own ends, and leading thousands to their deaths for...what?
• Both are spoiling for a fight in which they and their children have nothing personal invested.
• Neither are madmen, but crass, calculating megalomaniacs, wrapping themselves in flags and Scriptures, destroying critics, crushing dissent, insisting on secrecy, demanding allegiance, and creating phony litmus tests for "true believers"
How unlike our last eloquent "inexperienced" president, who understood that just because our opposition might behave this way, we should expect better of our leaders: we're a democracy, not a theocracy.
