The way of the world by Ron Suskind

Author:Ron Suskind [Ron Suskind]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Roman
ISBN: 9780061430626
Published: 2008-08-01T07:00:00+00:00

WHEN DAVID OMAND, AMONG THE most astute professionals in counterterrorism, talks of creating a “convincing narrative” about “the better alternative our society offers,” he’s alluding to a large and diffuse weave of example and impression, action and word. But what he, the Brits, and White House officials hopeful about the prospect of Bhutto’s return are up against is one of the strongest counter-narratives in recent history: the story of bin Laden.

Every human story has been told and retold countless times, but the story of the “wayward prince” has a special status, found in the fables of virtually every culture. Most commonly, it is a prince who leaves the castle, a corrupted place, takes a vow of poverty, and walks, plain-clothed, among the people. It’s a story that proceeds along the classic heroic arc: a character who abandons the familiar, confronts dangers and challenges in a twisting journey, and returns home altered, with hard-earned insight. In some cases, the prince leads the people against a wicked king. In others, he eventually returns to the people to live out his life, preferring them despite their penury.

It is clear that bin Laden and his deputy, Zawahiri, understand the power and varied applications of their version of the fable: a wealthy son of the Saudi elite who left it all behind, embracing poverty to walk among the people and then rise up to challenge the “apostate” Arab regimes and their oil-addicted American sponsor. The appeal of this story in a world where half the population lives on less than two dollars a day is hard to overstate. This is a simple fact, clear to U.S. officials—especially at the State Department—who, for years, have been quietly conducting surveys about the world’s impressions of key figures and nations.

During the summer of 2007, a large survey of Pakistani opinions was being conducted by a private firm in Northern Virginia that matched results with those that internal U.S. polls had been collecting. The survey, of 1,044 Pakistanis across 105 rural and urban “sampling points,” showed bin Laden with a 46 percent approval rating, Musharraf with 38 percent, and George Bush at 9 percent. Sixty-six percent believed America was acting against Islam or was anti-Muslim, and only 19 percent had a favorable view of the United States. It is worth noting that a similar survey conducted in October 2005—after U.S.-led efforts to help earthquake victims in Kashmir—showed a U.S. approval rating of 46 percent.

Polls are ephemeral, snapshots whose relevance quickly fades. But the battle of competing narratives, and competing strategies, is central to the decisions of countless young Muslims, mostly men, who inhabit London and Karachi, Riyadh and Kabul. And also New York.

But, as in other areas, London—with its combination of legal protections and jihadist fervor—provides unique avenues for understanding what guides combatants of all shades, on all sides.

In a northwest suburb of the city is a two-story house with a nondescript white façade, two doors leading into a residence and an office, where you can find a man wanted by the United Nations, the Saudi government, and the U.

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