bin Laden's Message - a book review

Journalist Thom Hartmann invokes Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese author of The Art of War, to argue that we must know our enemy first in order to fight him better. This introduces his review of James Howarth and Bruce Lawrence's collaboration entitled Messages of the World, the Statements of Osama bin Laden.

Somehow, this book has disappeared from the shelves of all New York City Barnes & Noble stores, per my brother-in-law. It didn't sell out, but was removed by the store without explanation. Howarth and Lawrence, of course, do not support bin Laden's message and are not trying to get the word out, as it were, but simply want Americans to know what bin Laden says and why he says it.

We might think we know what bin Laden is all about because The New York Times and CNN helpfully summarise his message, but to read his actual words (in translation) provides a far more illuminating picture. Every now and then, according to Hartmann, he makes some interesting, even edifying, points.

As Hartmann writes, "There are no Arab military bases in Texas or California, no Arab contract mercenaries stationed in Britain or France, no Arab fleets in the Gulf of Mexico, no Arab-sponsored schemes of forcible settlement in the Mid-West. All the lines of intrusion and violence historically run in one direction."

Hartmann goes on to describe American and Western imperialism and aggression against Arab states over recent decades, and also makes the argument that if Americans had only read Mein Kampf - instead of removing it from their bookstor shelves in the 1930s, we might have been better prepared to handle Hitler.

Link to Hartmann's review:

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/hartmann/010