Ghost of a flea: Warren G. Harding lied! People died!

? Too sexy for this avatar | Main | If it's not love then it's the bomb that will bring us together ?

August 02, 2005

Warren G. Harding lied! People died!

Al Qaeda's clearly stated goals are grounded in a view of the world so different from, and based on assumptions so unfamiliar to, a secularized West they sound like hallunicatory nonsense. It is for this reason so many on the left mistake them for a rhetorical flourish masking sensible, economic goals that must be about peace-agreements or globalization or something. They are mistaken.

In fact, bin Laden's worldview is entirely internally coherent. It is based on a yearning for lost empire. This is a vision of a Caliphate where where impotent half-wits no longer need feel threatened by independent women or the perilous temptations of McDonald's, Disney and Britney Spears.

So the World Trade Towers had to come down because some psychopath can't come to grips with the end of World War I? Basically, yes. In bin Laden's universe, that was when everything started to go wrong. Viewed in that context, his plots against the Saudi and Jordanian monarchies make perfect sense. They are products of this original sin, the establishment of the political order of the Middle East by the Allied powers 80 years ago.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at August 2, 2005 07:17 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ghostofaflea.com/cgi-bin/mt/trackback-engine.cgi/4262