The Crazy Years by Spider Robinson

Author:Spider Robinson
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2015-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

The Only Thing We Have to Fear

FIRST PRINTED DECEMBER 2001

AS USUAL, THE TRUTH turned out to be both stranger and (thank God) duller than fiction.

Media accounts of the videotape of Osama bin Laden discovered shortly after the World Trade Center Massacre all seem to focus on the same aspect: at last, proof he was behind it! I had thought that case was proved long ago, and even if I hadn’t, that was still the least interesting thing about the tape as far as I’m concerned. Assuming it to have been reported accurately, here’s what I find most fascinating:

1.Mr. bin Laden was stunned when the towers came down.

He volunteers this information. He says he had presumed the destruction would be limited to those floors above the points of impact. That’s right: the fiendishly brilliant criminal genius we’ve all been so terrified of for months now, the millionaire mastermind whose intellect was so vast it wasn’t safe to show him on TV lest he somehow send his minions coded instructions right under our noses, is an idiot. He did absolutely no homework. He knew nothing about the construction of those towers, never troubled himself to study the blueprints. He who made his billions largely in construction is utterly ignorant of engineering, architecture or even basic physics. He didn’t even assign an underling to bone up on such matters and brief him at any point during his planning process. The man just plain got lucky.

What we all thought was the ingenious coordination of the WTC attacks and the anthrax assault was an illusion too, purest serendipity. Mr. bin Laden seems to have had exactly the same secret weapon the cartoon character George of the Jungle famously depended on: Dumb Luck. And he doesn’t even have the sense to be embarrassed about that. As George’s colleague Bugs Bunny would say, what a mo-roon.

2.He casually admits betraying his own men.

An unspecified number—perhaps most—of the Nineteen Nitwits apparently thought they were on a suicide mission; they believed they were engaged in a simple generic hijacking. They were not martyrs: the correct technical term would be “suckers.” They probably died screaming, just like their victims. Since they did not knowingly, willingly, give their lives for jihad, they might well be roasting in Islamic hell right now for all Mr. bin Laden knows.

Or cares. He reportedly expresses no shame or even sorrow for their deaths, and makes no apology for, or even defense of, his appalling treachery. It does not occur to him to reassure his surviving followers worldwide that he will sacrifice them only if it should ever prove absolutely, positively useful.

He seems to believe the same thing we all mistakenly thought for awhile just after September 11: that somewhere, he has a large force of eager kamikaze fanatics at his disposal. We believed at least Six Hundred were ready to ride into the Valley of Death at his command. It now appears he may have been able to come up with as few as eight…supported by

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.