Skip to main content

Seriously, where is Bin Laden?

Rumours abound as to the whereabouts of the Al-Qaeda leader. In March, the BBC suggested the Afghan-Pakistani border, in North Waziristan. One author, talking to Der Spiegel in April, , suggested Miram Shah, in Waziristan. The Pakistan Daily Times last May, suggested the Karakoram mountain range.

It's not surprising that we know very little. Conquerors have failed time and again in that part of the world. The determined murder of any media person who goes near the place has also scared the press away. Perhaps this is the strongest signal of what the Taliban are hiding there. Or perhaps it is just a testament to the virulence of violence; after all, just as Arabists noted that the CIA disbanded its Bin laden team two years ago, American journalists and lobbyists are now asking if Bin Laden still matters.

Throughout the war on terror, the west, and especially the forces of the United States, has missed opportunity after opportunity to press advantage or to demonstrate strategic sense in the notoriously difficult and Empire-crushing conditions of Afghanistan. Resources and leadership have been focussed on the war of choice in Iraq, and now on Iran. Now, the Afghan war is gearing up again and fighting is especially intense in South Waziristan.

The ultimate statement of the decadent solipsism of our civilisation--a silly documentary by a man who made his name talking about the effect of hamburgers on stupid people--is about to be released. It's subject is the Bin Laden hunt. My question, looking back, at these past eight blood soaked years, is why didn't we take the hunt for the Terror King seriously?

The picture at the top of this post is Peter Breughel's Hunters in the Snow. There is a moving juxtaposition of the picture with a poem by Joseph Langland here, which talk of quests on mountaintops may make you think of going to.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

William Orpen There are four major Christian traditions, which are of course Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian and Coptic. Some sects and cults also exist, like the Moonies or Anglicanism. Yet in some bizarre way this weekend, protestant contributions to something other than the seizure of churches have been making their way into my consciousness. I suppose that the first indication of this trend was a reflection in an old copy of Gibbon that he actually became cultured because of Calvinism. Packed off to Switzerland because he went Catholic at an otherwise boring Oxford, Gibbon fell in love with Suzanne Cuchod, and with Greek because of instruction from a Calvinist mentor. It's an odd thing--I keep coming across indications of Calvinists who could have fun, though they doubtless thought that they would pay for it later, and whose political intelligence was second to none. Althusius springs to mind, for instance. But then what am I thinking, I thought to myself? I've sat on balconi...
11 comments
Read more
Dublin's New Land War There are some lessons for free market ideologues, not the least of whom is Guido Fawkes (a blogger whose posts I like a great deal), in what is happening in Ireland. You'll recall that NAMA plan . It was a plan to set up a National Asset Management Authority, a bit like McCain's 'toxic bank scheme' in 2008. The idea is that the state could buy, transfer and underwrite toxic mortgages, and move those assets to a new body. The banks would also support the new body minimally, leaving themselves free to lend and to rebuild their balance sheets without being nationalised. State payments for the new assets would move money to the banks, and put a floor under losses. Many of those who hate and despise the idea of government actually asserting control over things it pays for liked this idea. It was contrasted to Gordon Brown's 'cash for shares' deal, and to Barack Obama's 'subsidy plus levy' plans. When accompanied by a bank-f...
5 comments
Read more
The Latest Encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI My fiancee has just excitedly told me that the man she refers to as 'Pope Benny' (well, she is Italian-American) has published a new encyclical to 'the Christian People of Europe'. It is on the theme of hope (his last was on love) and, though as dense as one would expect from the world's leading public intellectuals it appears to be a major disquisition on love and hope, and the link of Jewish people and Israel to those themes. It's been ages since anyone dared do that in politics. I think Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were the last, and the media would laugh at anyone who tried it now. We need more of it.
Post a Comment
Read more