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| Volume IX, June 2002, Number 2 |
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| EXCERPT: Osama bin Laden: Embedded in the Middle East Crises |
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| Ann M. Lesch |
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Dr. Lesch is professor of political science, Villanova University.
Osama bin Laden has been elevated to iconic status as the
avowed mastermind behind the
devastating attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. That focus on his persona exaggerates his individual importance while diminishing the significance of the wider crisis in which he and his movement are embedded. In order to investigate this issue, I will address four key aspects of the Bin Laden phenomenon: the centrality of the fight against the Soviet-supported regime in Afghanistan for legitimizing the concept of a twentieth-century jihad (holy struggle); the subsequent violent attacks by the returning Arab fighters against their own governments; the mounting resentment against the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia during and especially following the Gulf War of 1990-1991; and the widening of the jihad into a global attack on the United States, as the sole superpower. These four aspects are not exhaustive, and yet they are sufficiently comprehensive to explain why Bin Laden's message resonates widely in the Middle East and why the demise of the messenger will not, in itself, curb this dangerously militant movement.
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