(no subject)
The Looming Tower, al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 is probably the best book I've read in a fairly long time. Within its pages comes the history of radical Islamic jihad and the formation of al-Qaeda. As one would expect from the title, the book culminates with the destruction of the World Trade Center towers and concludes in a brief aftermath as American forces begin to take action in Afghanistan. Written in easily followed narrative, this book has planted a rather different image in my mind of al-Qaeda than the image of the organization I thought I knew. If the book is anything other than completely apolitical, it hides it very well, and I can readily recommend it to anyone who cares at all about the threat of global terror.
From my perspective, The Looming Tower worked some fairly substantial changes to what had been my understanding of radical Islamic jihad. The book touched on everything from the organization of al-Qaeda to the mentality of the people involved. The book also told the story of the American response to the activities of al-Qaeda, giving vivid effect to the now well known failure of the US government to communicate with itself.
The same vivid narrative did a wonderful job of presenting the mentality of the people involved in radical Islamic jihad. While most of what I read was familiar, there were a couple of things which were different from what I had previously believed. The biggest difference that I noticed is how little most of the people involved seem to hate America; there is, no doubt, a lot of hate, but most of it seems to be general purpose hate that only touches the United States because bin Laden directs it here. Qtub certainly hated America. bin Laden, it seems, simply hates any superpower, also hates materialism, and views America as a materialist superpower; in other words, he hates America, but it's nothing personal. Any of the other powerful figures seemed to have agendas which had very little to do with the US, focusing instead on internal power struggles, Egypt, Syria, and the whole of the Middle East.
Surprising to me in all of the motivations for jihad was the lack of any mention of Israel. It had always been my understanding that a lot of the hatred coming toward America from terrorists was directly related to our support of Israel against invasion from the Muslim world. While Israel did receive some mention, it sort of came in passing, and struck me as more of an additional justification than as a fundamental driving force.
Also surprising to me was the organization structure of al-Qaeda; or, more to the point, the lack of one. As mentioned above, radical Islamic jihad runs on the strength of a lot of unfocused hate. As Osama controls the purse strings, he is occasionally able to get people working together enough to pull off a trick like 9/11, but for the most part, al-Qaeda is just a bunch of people who want to go blow things up. To the degree that there is a command structure at all, it is so decentralized that occasionally one team of terrorists inadvertently sabotages an operation being conducted by a different team. Osama, who I once thought of as being at least a passable tactician and leader, now looks a lot more like a bungling idiot whose only power comes from the money he inherited from his father.
Whatever the power structure, the book makes clear that the people involved in terror are devout in their adherence to a stunningly warped version of the Quran. In this vein, one anecdote resonated with me more than most. Apparently, the Quran says that true believers should not commit suicide. Yet, as we all know, suicide attacks are the modus operandi for much of global terror. To get around this problem required not simply ignoring the Quran on that point, but actually caused one of the spiritual leaders to issue a statement which held the Quran to mean the exact opposite of what it says. His logic essentially went like this: If your choice is to kill yourself or to be killed with someone else, then killing yourself isn't suicide; therefore, if you put yourself in a position where you're likely to die, then you might as well blow yourself up first.
In all, after reading The Looming Tower, radical Islamic jihad seems a lot less scary than it used to. With the organization so disorganized, the ability for terrorists to conduct complex operations is pretty low. At the same time, I am more convinced than ever that negotiating with these people would be a waste of time. There simply isn't a whole lot of room to compromise with people who fundamentally believe that you do not have a right to exist.
But of course, those conclusions are my own. The Looming Tower does well at simply presenting the story and allowing the reader to draw conclusions. Both readable and informative, this book should definitely be on any reading list for anyone interested in the modern age of global terror.
From my perspective, The Looming Tower worked some fairly substantial changes to what had been my understanding of radical Islamic jihad. The book touched on everything from the organization of al-Qaeda to the mentality of the people involved. The book also told the story of the American response to the activities of al-Qaeda, giving vivid effect to the now well known failure of the US government to communicate with itself.
The same vivid narrative did a wonderful job of presenting the mentality of the people involved in radical Islamic jihad. While most of what I read was familiar, there were a couple of things which were different from what I had previously believed. The biggest difference that I noticed is how little most of the people involved seem to hate America; there is, no doubt, a lot of hate, but most of it seems to be general purpose hate that only touches the United States because bin Laden directs it here. Qtub certainly hated America. bin Laden, it seems, simply hates any superpower, also hates materialism, and views America as a materialist superpower; in other words, he hates America, but it's nothing personal. Any of the other powerful figures seemed to have agendas which had very little to do with the US, focusing instead on internal power struggles, Egypt, Syria, and the whole of the Middle East.
Surprising to me in all of the motivations for jihad was the lack of any mention of Israel. It had always been my understanding that a lot of the hatred coming toward America from terrorists was directly related to our support of Israel against invasion from the Muslim world. While Israel did receive some mention, it sort of came in passing, and struck me as more of an additional justification than as a fundamental driving force.
Also surprising to me was the organization structure of al-Qaeda; or, more to the point, the lack of one. As mentioned above, radical Islamic jihad runs on the strength of a lot of unfocused hate. As Osama controls the purse strings, he is occasionally able to get people working together enough to pull off a trick like 9/11, but for the most part, al-Qaeda is just a bunch of people who want to go blow things up. To the degree that there is a command structure at all, it is so decentralized that occasionally one team of terrorists inadvertently sabotages an operation being conducted by a different team. Osama, who I once thought of as being at least a passable tactician and leader, now looks a lot more like a bungling idiot whose only power comes from the money he inherited from his father.
Whatever the power structure, the book makes clear that the people involved in terror are devout in their adherence to a stunningly warped version of the Quran. In this vein, one anecdote resonated with me more than most. Apparently, the Quran says that true believers should not commit suicide. Yet, as we all know, suicide attacks are the modus operandi for much of global terror. To get around this problem required not simply ignoring the Quran on that point, but actually caused one of the spiritual leaders to issue a statement which held the Quran to mean the exact opposite of what it says. His logic essentially went like this: If your choice is to kill yourself or to be killed with someone else, then killing yourself isn't suicide; therefore, if you put yourself in a position where you're likely to die, then you might as well blow yourself up first.
In all, after reading The Looming Tower, radical Islamic jihad seems a lot less scary than it used to. With the organization so disorganized, the ability for terrorists to conduct complex operations is pretty low. At the same time, I am more convinced than ever that negotiating with these people would be a waste of time. There simply isn't a whole lot of room to compromise with people who fundamentally believe that you do not have a right to exist.
But of course, those conclusions are my own. The Looming Tower does well at simply presenting the story and allowing the reader to draw conclusions. Both readable and informative, this book should definitely be on any reading list for anyone interested in the modern age of global terror.