Posted by
Scott Ott on Saturday, April 19, 2008 8:48:57 AM
As the New York Times, and others, continue
the debate about whether its really al Qaeda we're fighting in Iraq, or just some loose network of radicals with no centralized command-and-control, somewhere in the bowels of his plush subterranean digs in Waziristan, Usama bin Laden laughs, then he cranks up his generator and pops in the next DVD in his favorite movie series,
Star Wars.
Until we, in the West, understand why Mr. Bin Laden loves
Star Wars, we cannot effectively fight a "war on terror."
In a nutshell: Usama bin Laden thinks he's Luke Skywalker. He thinks the United States and its allies are The Empire. In his mind, we are the evil Darth-Vaderian types, and he is the good Master Luke trying to restore balance to the force.
The Empire has legions of well-equipped soldiers and billions of dollars worth of battlefield technology. Usama bin Skywalker has a ragtag band of loyalists in desert attire, using improvised weapons and feats of daring to exploit the weaknesses inherent in the size of their bloated enemy.
Mr. Bin Laden remembers that the Death Star -- that impenetrable fortress in the heavens -- had an exhaust vent vulnerable to attack only by a small, fast-moving fighter. He recalls the battle in the forests of Endor, when the Muppetine Ewoks brought down the Storm Troopers with sticks and stones and rope. He rejoices as the Empire's elephantine walking All-Terrain Armored Transports, in 'Return of the Jedi', drop to their mechanical knees, tripped up by simple cables strung across their paths.
As planners in the Pentagon for years have focused on answering massive force with overwhelming force, al Qaeda's planners look for cracks, creases and hidden faults that can be leveraged for massive impact with few resources, by small cells of committed fighters.
To Mr. Bin Laden, it doesn't matter whether you call them insurgents, terrorists, Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, or one of the many other affiliated labels. He doesn't care if you think that Iraq is in the midst of civil war, or instead, being infiltrated and destabilized by outside agents. He doesn't need to wear a military uniform with a chest full of medals. He doesn't care who gets the credit. What matters is the objective, the outcome. The Empire must fall.
To fight such a delusional creature, one must get inside his delusion. There are many indications that Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq, and his top advisers understand it.
By bringing relative security to the streets of one neighborhood after another, they demonstrate our good will. By training up a law-abiding Iraqi military force -- a novel concept in that part of the world -- we give Iraqis a glimpse of a nation ruled by law, not by powerful men.
Gen. Petraeus has decentralized the military in Iraq, fanning them out into small, dare I say, cells that patrol neighborhoods and get to know the people -- rather than just rolling through, peering out of armored vehicles and retreating to the base at night. Using tactics like respect for the local people, fairness and
compassion, our troops have induced the local civilians to unmask the terrorists
in their midst.
To defeat a rebel, one must think like a rebel and exploit his vulnerabilities.
Mr. Bin Laden's rebel plan has a crack-- nay, a great, gaping chasm.
His miscalculation is not military, but ideological and spiritual. While he may think of himself as Luke Skywalker, he is, quite literally, immersed in the Dark Side. He appears to himself as an 'angel of light'. The Biblical word for that is Lucifer.
While Luke Skywalker's tactics in Star Wars dealt direct blows to The Empire, Mr. Bin Laden's tactics strike fear into even his own potential allies. Indiscriminate bombings in crowded markets shred soldier and citizen, Christian, atheist and Muslim alike.
Awash in his own delusion, this latter-day devil slaughters his own
soldiers and allies -- failing to see the danger in a
house divided against itself.