Osama and Richard

27 August 2002

I have been reading a lot about Richard Perle lately. He is alternatively the visionary neo-conservative, the Prince of Darkness, the master propagandist, the Likudnik advisor to the Pentagon and White House inner circles, a brilliant patriot. Probably all of these things are true in their own way. But I wonder….. if Richard Perle did not exist, would Osama bin Laden need to create him?

What? Am I crazy? Am I smoking some kind of funny cigarettes? Maybe so. But it seems that Richard Perle has three main concerns these days… if you read the papers. One, he wishes to violently remove one brutal, survival-oriented dictator named Saddam Hussein who may or may not be thinking about using weapons of mass destruction against U.S. interests. Second, Perle is not enamored of the house of Saud, if one considers his recent hosting of, as Robert Novak puts it, a "bizarre" briefing on the evils of Saudi Arabia by Rand researcher Laurent Murawiec. Third, Richard Perle desires and fully expects that a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq (and post-Saud Saudi Arabia) will emerge sovereign, unified, democratic (re: pro-U.S.), and that these entities will be self sustaining on the energy of, well, their energy reserves.

Now Osama, dead or alive, is also interested in some big picture items. He too is interested in taking down the House of Saud. He wants the immediate end of secular rulers on the Arabian Peninsula, and he wants to see a unified, peaceful pan-Arab (and Persian as well) Islamic focus sustained on the energy of, well, their energy reserves.

Richard Perle believes that a US military campaign in the heart of Arab Muslim culture will defeat the secular dictators and unpopular royals in the region, and free the democratic people there to become unified peaceful neighbors and good trading partners with the U.S. I mean, this isn't the Crusades, or even extension of Zionism. This is just good business, right?

Osama, on the other hand, well… shares this vision, up to and including the unification part, with one minor insight that Richard Perle has ignored. Unilateral offensive action by the U.S., ill defined in its objective and unrelated to a clear and present danger, is consequently impossible to intellectually defend or to materially prosecute as a just war. Such a military action, "war" if you will, the word cheapened by its promiscuous usage in this country, will indeed unify the Arab peoples in a way only unjust attacks by a superior military force can do. This is a consequence Osama cheers as having the added attraction of fueling anti-U.S. politics in the new "democracies." Perle apparently ignores this side effect with either a "not gonna happen" or "so what," illustrating a casual regard for consequences shared by megalomaniacs, wherever we find them.

Osama, on his own or with al Qaeda, could not effect the crumbling of Western democratic practices and moral values of justice. The attacks on New York and Washington were not enough to break or even weaken the spirit of Americans or America. But by sparking an illogical frenzy of unfulfilled ambitions amongst key advisors to the executive office, pressing to bypass democratic or moral concerns long treasured in America if not always practiced, Perle and company provide the missing link for Osama's dreamscape.