Understanding Bin Laden

MARINES: It’s God’s Job to forgive bin Laden, it’s our job to arrange the meeting.

Whose job is it to understand bin Laden?

Let me be crystal clear. When I ask this question I am not asking it as if I was a psychotherapist, and I am not operating out of a deep concern for how Osama is feeling or whether he was beaten as a child. I am asking it because I have not eschewed critical thinking and analysis as unimportant, troublesome, more work than they are worth, or the refuge of pansies. I am asking it because I do not believe we are addressing the problem of terrorism until we try to answer this question. I am asking it because I won't feel anything close to comfortable until a many more people are also worrying about this question and its answer.

Many Americans, and to a disturbing extent the last two administrations, have viewed the war on terrorism as if it was a football game and terrorists as if they were the opposing team. Our goal is to beat the terrorists, and their goal is to beat us.

The football analogy doesn’t work, however. In a football game, the teams may have different strategies, but they have the same goal. They want to win the game. Terrorists don’t just want to win the game, and of course the same is true for us. We want regional stability, low gas prices, access to and control over natural resources, markets for our goods, etc. Terrorists have goals too, and it’s not just to destroy the United States. Many of these goals, and the grievances and desires they arise out of, are legitimate. The means being used to achieve may not be legitimate, but the goals and grievances often are. The United States did help bring Saddam to power in Iraq. The United States has had a military presence in Saudi Arabia and beyond. The United States has given tremendous amounts of support to Israel. There has been mistreatment of Arabs and Muslims in the United States. American leaders were unprepared to run Iraq, did allow violence and looting to take place and did fall short when it came to providing basic services. And Iraqis were mistreated. And America’s commitment to rights and freedoms did seem to waver when it came to time to grant them to their enemies, people who might have information about their enemies, and, in the eyes of many, Muslims. American companies have had a lot of influence in the region, and have been involved in activities that anyone, regardless of party affiliation, would have to admit were wrong.

Now, you don’t have to agree with any of the above. It doesn’t matter what you think. It doesn't even matter whether these concerns are at all legitimate. What matters is whether people in the region think that way. If they do, they are more likely to turn to terrorism. If they do, then it is our responsibility to find out why and see what changes can be made to stop them from thinking that way. It is in our own best interests to do so.

Now, I know that the soldiers can't always trouble themselves with such concerns. They have a job to do. The reality is, though, that many soldiers do have these concerns. Many soldiers are trying to understand the country they are fighting in and the people they are protecting. We all, soldiers and the rest of us, need to extend that concern to the people we are fighting.

Understanding bin Laden is everyone's job.