The Talk of the Day Thursday was the breaking story that some 25-year-old Left Coast “influencer” had discovered a tape of Osama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” and posted it on Tik Tok, and received thousands of “likes” and positive statements from ignorant sheep viewers, mostly young.
This letter is to them.
What makes the mass murderer’s anti-Semitic message resonate was his alibi professed motivation: the U.S.’ support of Israel. The U.S. does. That is true. Almost everything else he said isn’t.
Unfortunately, Tik Tok (under fire by the Administration, many members of Congress, and from both Left and Right critics) responded to the blowback by deleting the video. The Guardian newspaper, which had published the text, also deleted it, followed by every other platform I checked, including Bryn Mawr college. It has been banned worldwide, shoved down the memory hole.
This is precisely the wrong thing to do, because bin Laden talked about how the power structures lie, and this seems like an attempt by them to hide their sins.
It would be like banning Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” It is ugly, but instructive.
One fragment of bin Laden’s letter did survive the purge.
Speaking of the U.S., he said, “They threw hundreds of thousands of soldiers against us and have formed an alliance with the Israelis to oppress us and occupy our land; that was the reason for our response on the eleventh.”
He hates America.
But not that much because he accepted American money, arms and intelligence when he was an Afghan “freedom fighter.” As such, yes, he was a shill for America in that proxy war against Russia. That makes him a hypocrite.
In the statement above, the only time we “threw hundreds of thousands of soldiers” against them was after he killed 3,000 innocent Americans on 9/11.
We have no alliance with Israel to oppress Arabs and occupy their land.
But bin Laden believed that Israel is Arab land, despite Jews having a presence there for at least 2,000 years. He probably believed that until his ticket was punched by Seal Team Six.
While he sent others out to fight the infidels, bin Laden remained in hiding for 10 years, and when the end came, he was hiding behind his wife. That makes him a coward.
Ar the time of 9/11, America did have troops in Arab countries, as bin Laden said. What he did not say is that the U.S. soldiers were there at the invitation of the Arab nations to protect them from, yes, terrorists like bin Laden.
Tik Tokkers, you have to understand that bin Laden didn’t just hate Israel, he hated America, and Americans. That’s why it was so easy for him to justify the mass murder, in the name of Allah.
And he did not just hate Israel, and America, and you. He hated the West, and Western values. He wanted sharia law, everywhere. He was leading a worldwide global jihad against the values that allow you to have a cell phone with which to follow influencers like Lynnette Adkins, who’d be wearing a burka, if he had his way.
And your LGBTQIA+ and trans friends? You want to guess what your shining blight would have in store for them?
If you use Tik Tok, you are probably young, so let me bring home his evil to you in terms you will understand: He would behead Adam Sandler.
In the Way Back Machine, I know a lot of campus types were enthralled by Adolf Hitler in the ‘30s, with him promising a better life for the oppressed. Not just college students, but even an American hero like aviator Charles Lindbergh.
Yes, stupid is, as stupid does, when you are unable to see the enemy for who he is.
Thank You for the blog that outlines “Those who don’t read and know history are doomed to repeat it”. I try to enlighten my children (Adults 22) every day to look at both sides of a story and make their own conclusions. Gone are the days of news outlets stating the facts for you to form a conclusion yourself. Now all stories come at you with the author’s skewed opinion and you need to decide whos right from one side.
You are so on target with this post. Do NOT hide the ravings of these terrorist madmen; only by reading what they rave and debunk the lies with the light of truth can we ever hope to overcome the madness.
On a tangent, what terrifies me is the fact that OSB was planning the WTC attack for more than two years, yet the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI never smelled it coming or never talked to each other about what they did suspect, and 3,000 people died, and the heart was ripped out of our country. If these ‘intelligence’ centers still are not talking with each other, I cannot conceive of how many terrorists have come to the USA via the southern border and await orders to strike — a strike that will make the WTC attack look like a fraternity prank.
After the 9/11 Commission report, the spies started talking to each other, and still do, according to published accounts.
Wish you were a bit younger so you could post your views and these facts on TikTok.
Them youngsters need to be awakened and informed.
That said, I must dispute your point about “Jews having a presence there (Israel) for 2,000 years.” My understanding is that Jews founded thriving civilizations there more than 3,000 years ago, and even after being exiled have maintained a presence for at least 2,500 years.
I, too, wish I could post on Tik Tok, but that would require me to join Tik Tok, which I will not do.
I have changed the wording to “at least 2,000 years.” I use 2,000, because that can be confirmed through scientific sources. The earlier dates rely on biblical sources and I don’t want to get into an arguments with opponents over dates. The 2000 is rock solid.
Stu,
Paul’s right. Indisputable evidence of the Israelites’ presence from c. 1200 BCE isn’t exclusively found in the Bible. Archeology, including enemy kings’ stone monuments bearing inscriptions – e.g., the enemy king’s ninth century BCE stele mentioning his war against northern Israel kingdom and “the House of David” – and so much else – King Hezekiah’s tunnel, Jerusalem walls, the Temple Mount, archeological remains from all over the land in the first and even late second millennia BCE. It’s not just religious faith, it’s real.
I stick to the unarguable 3000 total years, which is MORE than enough to establish title. Going back beyond that “may” be true but it opens the door to arguments, like this, that I do NOT want to have.
This article got me thinking about the larger picture, as a lot of your writing does. You referenced Hitler and Mein Kampf. What if the US just really decided to remain totally neutral in the midst of WWII? The US is still the one single entity on the globe that can be trusted to defend democracy and battle authoritarianism and brutality wherever it rears it’s ugly head, including Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and Hamas/Hezbollah/Iranian attacks on Israel. If you’re a principled American, I really don’t understand how the two can be decoupled.
I think most Americans were isolationist — UNTIL Pearl Harbor. That changed everything.
I agree as the democratic superpower U.S. has a moral obligation to defend other democracies.
The dangers of authoritarian regimes such as those that brought us Bin Laden cannot be overstated. Before the Fuhrer was a murdering despot, he appeared to be simply a weirdo politician who the Germany people believed was “like them” and “spoke the truth”. Then he started calling Jews “vermin,” and well, you know the rest. If any of this sounds vaguely familiar to anyone here, you have been paying attention, If not, you might wanna start.
Trump is using the word ‘vermin’ in his diatribes (he’ll rid us of ‘Communists, Marxists & vermin’ sounds just like Hitler).
Maybe that’s because he’s likened to Hitler so much. He’s taking it to heart.
These kids are so out of touch with history. Many weren’t even born, or were too young to remember 9/11. I was born 16 years after Pearl Harbor but I still was taught about what happened 12/7/1941. We wouldn’t read a Hirohito or Hitler manifesto and say, “those guys were right.” Bin Laden was a monster. Many probably didn’t even read the OBL letter, they just parrot what they hear on TikTok, like minah birds. I now know how Hitler took power. These kids think killing Jews is cool. Palestinians are cool and Jews are uncool. Now they think Osama bin Laden is cool, Hitler is cool. We are doomed to see a 4th Reich in this century.
Great stuff, Stu. In the tradition of 1930s Oxford students who claimed they’d never willingly take up arms against Germany