Daily Standard: Al Qaeda's Olive Branch
By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
An expanded version of the analysis of the new bin Laden tape that I provided yesterday is now posted at the Daily Standard. An excerpt:
BY NOW, there can be no doubt that al Qaeda's message to the West has been distilled down to two simple concepts. The first is that the terrorist group can be appeased. The second is that, if they aren't appeased, Westerners face grave consequences. The latest Osama bin Laden audiotape, released on January 19, makes these points explicit and shows how bin Laden intends to fashion his message for Western ears.
In the tape, bin Laden offers a truce in return for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. "We have no objection to responding to a long term truce according to equitable conditions which we would honor," bin Laden says, "so that the two sides could enjoy security and stability under this truce, and so that we could rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan which the war has destroyed." Of course this isn't al Qaeda's first offer of a truce.
It shouldn't be surprising that fashioning an appeal to the American public, and thus attempting to sow discord, is part of bin Laden's strategy. As bin Laden bragged to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn after the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia, "Hardly eighteen of them were killed, when they fled in the dark of the night, despite the uproar that was created worldwide about the New World Order."
Read the whole article here.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/mt/pings.cgi/2271
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Daily Standard: Al Qaeda's Olive Branch:
» Daily Standard: Al Qaedas Olive Branch from NoisyRoom.net
Courtesy of The Counterterrorism Blog:
An expanded version of the analysis of the new bin Laden tape that I provided yesterday is now posted at the Daily Standard. An excerpt:
BY NOW, there can be no doubt that al Qaedas message to the West h... [Read More]
