Bin Laden victory statement

international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis

Sunday November 25, 2007 15:45

by Joe

Osama bin Laden published a post-Iraq war statement on October 23. The essence of the statement is that the war is over and Islam has won. It is now time to achieve an Islamic State in Iraq.

Last weeks US revelation that it intends to withdraw 3,000 soldiers, combined with the new Labour PM in Australia announcing the withdrawal of Auzzie soldiers will strengthen this perception. Bin Laden warns all Iraqi mujahideen - Sunni and Shiite - that the hardest task is yet to come: namely, the creation of an Islamist state in Iraq.

He praises the Resistance:

"magnificent victories that make Americans prisoners of their bases and the Green Zone - The world has stood stunned, amazed, delighted and wonder-struck. Watching America the tyrannical: watching its legions breaking apart under your strikes, its brigades being wiped out in front of your raids and its battalions being obliterated by the pounding of your squadrons ... O people of Iraq ... O eminent ones of the Turks, Kurds and Arabs: the affair of unbelief [the US occupation] has been shaken and confused, and the time of his fleeing is nigh, so increase his confusion and disarray, and strike some more at his neck and hit it with a bone-cutting sword. The bearer of the banner of the cross has increased his soldiers and claimed that he will defeat the soldiers of faith, so be resolute - may Allah be merciful to you - and remember Him much, for he is watching you ... You have done well by carrying out one of the greatest of duties which few carry out: repelling the attacking enemy”.

The Iraqis and Muslims in are generally are amazed that US forces have been beaten so easily in Iraq, and that they are withdrawing so soon.

US Army commanders claim a reduction in Insurgent attacks shows their surge is working. The mujahideen know there is no point in going up against the temporary surge forces. They will rather absorb them further into the successful guerrilla war. They know US voters favor withdrawal and have heard their politicians promise it. They see little point in aggressively attacking a retreating foe, risking humiliating him, and thereby causing him to reconsider his decision to leave in favor of staying to fight.

Bin Laden continues. “But some of you have been tardy in performing another duty which is also among the greatest of duties: combining your ranks to make them one rank as loved by Allah, who said, "Truly Allah loves those who fight in His cause in ranks, as if they were a solid cemented structure. Infidelity on all its levels - international, regional and local - is combining to prevent the establishment of the state of Islam ... Sticks refuse to break when banded together. But if they come apart they break one by one. Beware of your enemies, especially the hypocrites who infiltrate your ranks to stir up trouble among mujahid groups".
Bin Laden is referring to Saudi officials who give assistance to the most Wahhabist Iraqi mujahideen. This is disruptive of efforts to promote insurgent unity. Zarqawi was also chided by al Qaida leaders for his sectarianism which cause further division. Iran is also fostering sectarianism.

Bin Laden sees the struggle to create unity in Iraq as a major struggle. It is not an easy task but if it is successful the ramifications across the middle east will be enormous. A united Islamic force facing into Israel with the defeated United States scurrying home would be unstoppable.

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Comments (6 of 6)

Depends on how islamic is defined- doesn't it/

by -

Sun Nov 25, 2007 17:49

A catch all phraseology for everything that is not 'Jewish' or 'RC' or "Western', and within those perameters how do we define ourselves?

Are we defined so simply by adherences to majority faiths- I am not. The major faiths
or their political leaders do not speak religion but power and politics. Its usage of
spiritual tenets to facilitate abuse- for profit. This is what happens when those who seek to
lead do so for profit and war, they ally truths to Materialistic gain or in Jame's words:
'It is too soon to be closing our account with reality'- those who seek to name their gods
do so to define others realities and fail everytime. look at their failures, abuse, war,
eco devastation and destruction. Typical shite by men in dresses.

Re: Joe

by Frank Miller

Mon Nov 26, 2007 09:41

Are you out of your mind?
Do you think that a victory for Islamic fundementalist lunatics in Iraq is something to celebrate?
The misguided American war in Iraq has transformed it into a training ground for the global jihadist movement and these jihadists will use Iraq as a base following the imminent US withdrawl to attack Europe. thousands of Muslim men in communities across the continent have become radicalised and they will employ the same tactics used in Iraq against European societies they consider infidels.
When Iraq becomes an extremist Islamic state we will see the governments of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, Pakistan and other Muslim nations in the Middle East collapse as Islamist will seize power. We will witness hellish sectarians wars between Shia and Sunnis and between Muslim communities in Europe who will also be at the recieving end of a backlash led by European nationalists, secularists and Christian religious groups.

Already Islamic

by Malcolm X

Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:44

You got it wrong Frank.

The governments of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait etc are already Islamic. In Syria and Saudis case radically so.

Iraq becoming as Islamic state will merely compliment Saudi and Syria, not radicalise them.

Malcom X - its you that got it wrong

by Sceptic

Mon Nov 26, 2007 21:04

The regimes in Syria, Egypt, and Jordan are secular by the standards of the region not Islamic and largely so in Kuwait. Syria is a Baathist dictatorship which has a history of bloody in repression against the Muslim Brotherhood so you could not be more wrong on that one. (see link)

And presumably you mean “complement” not “compliment”.

Re: Malcolm X

Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:10

"The governments of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait etc are already Islamic."

All governments in the Middle East are Islamic. Saddam Hussein, a supposed secularlist invoked the blessings of Allah on his conquests. There are many different interpretations of Islam.
What the extremists Islamist movements seek is a return to a purer form of Islam, the Islam that existed at the time of the Prophet.
They believe that the Islam that exists at the moment is false and that devout Muslims who do not share their ideological purity are not true Muslims at all and should be slaughtered along with all other infidels or unbelievers like me and you.
You might roll your eyes and scoff. But these people really believe that Allah guides their actions and that they will triumph over the entire world and impose their beliefs on the human race.
Obviously they will not succeed but before they are ultimately defeated they may well succeed in provoking another global war that will cost millions of lives - hundreds of thousands have already died.

We might smugly believe that neo-conservative humiliation in Iraq is good - in the short term certainly - but these barbarian savages are enemies of the progressive movement and left wing politics even more than they hate the right wing US.

Saddam a model of Islamic piety?

Tue Nov 27, 2007 20:51

Don't be deceived by Saddam invoking the blessings of Allah for his wars - a protective gloss of Islamic colouring for a Baathist tyrant like him or Assad does not an Islamist regime make. The same is true of Egypt which is still the nationalist Nasserite regime at odds with the forces of Islamism there. Saddam was a latter day pious Muslim only when he saw that was the way the wind was blowing.

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Bin Laden victory statement

Comments (6 of 6)