What does Osama bin Laden remind you of?

Answer 1

Saddam Hussein. That's just the first thing that pops up in my mind when I see that name.

-To connect Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden is to prove the lasting effect of the Bush Administration's false rhetoric. Although we were told in late 2001 and early 2002 that Hussein and bin Laden were in cohorts about weapons of mass destruction, there is absolutely no verifiable evidence that Hussein and bin Laden had even the most marginal connection. It was a lie.

As to Osama bin Laden's true identity, he is a Saudi Arabian-born Wahhabi (fundamentalist Sunni) Muslim. Although he inherited billions from his family's Saudi Arabian oil shares, he always disdained his family. In the late 1970s he went to fight in the US-supported Mujahideen guerrilla army in Afghanistan that overthrew the Soviet-supported Babrak Karmal. Here, he gained access to weapons, and his already radical views turned a particularly violent shade of jihad.

He later founded and ran Al Qaeda, ordered the 9/11/2001 destruction of the Twin Towers, and became the CIA and FBI's #1 most wanted. Despite the (reckless and extralegal) efforts of the War on Terror, Osama bin Laden has never been caught and continues to serve as a figurehead and leader of one of the world's most ominous threat - Al Qaeda.

Today, his situation is particularly difficult because he has the unwaveringly devout loyalty of thousands of influential and violent people. Because of this, killing Osama bin Laden would make him one of the world's most famous martyrs, an act that could have very destructive outcomes.