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Life, Death And Afterlife Of Osama bin Laden

By Shajahan Madampat

04 May, 2011
Countercurrents.org

Osama bin Laden's death barely a few months ahead of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is likely to be utterly inconsequential, except in domestic politics in the United States.

Barack Obama's popularity has been plummeting consistently for some time now. Osama's death will undoubtedly provide a fresh lease of life for Obama's political career. However, a world without Osama will be less fertile for the American foreign policy to thrive. Beyond this minor impact, Osama's death will hardly matter in global politics, ecstatic media frenzy and anti-terrorism platitudes notwithstanding.

Arab Awakening

Interestingly, it is the Arab democratic uprising raging across the Middle East and North Africa since last December that actually stole the thunder of Al Qaida from Arab Muslim public imagination. The fact that Al Qaida leadership had nothing meaningful to say on the developments was the final proof that the crazed fanatics in the caves offered no alternative vision for a region torn between a majority of pro-western tyrannies and a minority of anti-American dictatorships.

The impact of the uprising on Islamism of all hues turned out to be so powerful that the most irrational varieties of it, such as Al Qaida, chose sullen silence in the face of leaderless popular protests across the region while the more moderate versions, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, decided to wax eloquent in a democratic vocabulary so pathetically at odds with their original vision of a theocratic utopia. The growing clout of a very mildly Islamist Turkey in Middle Eastern Politics is perhaps the best indicator of shifting political discourse in the region.

Friend Turing Foe

Not many will mourn the death of a man whose atavistic myopia was more jeered than cheered by even his ardent supporters. But we will do well to remember that he began his legendary career in global politics with the blessings of all those who turned his nemesis later. His 'accomplishments' during the past twenty years have been so limited compared to the immense good he did to his worst enemies during his prime. That the chicken finally came home to roost was merely a logical culmination, which should not have been hard to predict.

Imagine the Jehadi energies of the 1980s concentrating on Palestine instead of having been masterfully channeled to the geopolitically less consequential Afghanistan in a way that served the US best. That Osama, his immense wealth and his tens of thousands of battle-thirsty men landed in Afghanistan instead of Palestine was by no means an accident of history, but the Americans and the Saudis should have known better. When Osama enthusiastically offered the services of his men for the liberation of Kuwait in 1990, the Saudis cold-shouldered the apparently sincere gesture. Had they not, the prodigal son would perhaps have remained less recalcitrant and still less apocalyptical!

Bin Laden Dead, Al Qaida not

It is, therefore, not terribly ironical that the American defense forces had to invest enormously in men and money to kill one of the best creations of American foreign policy in the Middle East. If Abd al-Bari Atwan, the contrarian Arab journalist who had spent three unforgettable days in the company of Bin Laden in the caves of Tora Bora, is to be believed, Osama would be happier than Obama at the turn of events. According to Atwan, who wrote the highly informative "The Secret History of Al Qaida," the battle-hardened Osama bin Laden's eyes became moist only at the mention of his 'martyred' fellow-fighters, not in sorrow at their loss but envious that they preceded him in eternal glory!

It will be simplistic to conclude that Osama' death will result in the eventual weakening of Al Qaida, or for that matter, other jehadi groups. Several studies have confirmed that Al Qaida was not the name of a closely coordinated global group under the singular leadership of Bin Laden and Zawahiri, but the nomenclature for a loosely connected network of worldviews and collectivities, sharing a set of misguided religious and political convictions. Bin Laden had long ceased to play any role in shaping its trajectory as his primary preoccupation has for years been his own safety and protection. But it is fair to assume that a dead Bin Laden will remain for a long time a potent metaphor for primitive furies unleashed in espousing modern and often legitimate causes.

Che Guevara of Militant Islam?

It will not be totally outlandish to anticipate the beatification of Bin Laden as the Che Guera of militant Islam in popular imagination. Of course, there are many differences between the two. While the former was an itinerant fugitive, the latter was an itinerant revolutionary. The former's worldview was rooted in distant past though motivated by present grievances while the latter's in stark contemporaneity. While Bin Laden adopted mindless and random violence as his modus operandi, Che sought to mobilize people on the ground. Bin Laden emerged from the well springs of capitalism and buttressed his position with the riches made possible by a uniquely Saudi form of neoliberal economic policies, whereas Che hailed from a culture defined by its stout opposition to capitalism.

But capitalism has a knack for posthumous assimilation of its own enemies as best evidenced by the omnipresent Che T-shirts. It will not be long before we see Osama T-shirts making fashion statements around the world!

Shajahan Madampat is a cultural critic and commentator




 


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