The world-war provocateur phenomenon

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References

Note: The large body of facts included in this comparative historical analysis involves famous events in world history that do not require bibliographical citations. The below references have been provided for those few events in this examination that are more obscure.

1 Interestingly, just as Benjamin Franklin's Versailles meeting catalyzed the American mass movement that culminated in the 1789 American political revolution, in this same meeting Benjamin Franklin also catalyzed the French ideological mass movement of enlightened democratic government that culminated in the 1789 French political revolution.

2 Instead of the geographical contiguity of a traditional nation, Radical Islam is a globally dispersed, ideological nation that relies not on physical infrastructure but on the virtual infrastructure of information provided by the modern communications revolution. In this context, the events of the unfolding Year 1 Revolution for Bin Laden are not confined primarily to one country, but rather scattered across the world.

3 America's gradual entrapment in Napoleon's war against Britain was marked by Napoleon's diplomatic manipulation of the young nation’s relationship with its former imperial ruler. This gambit was largely initiated by Napoleon’s formal cessation of the Franco-American naval conflict soon after rising to power. In a few years, Napoleon's sale of the Louisiana Territory to America doubled the domain of the United States and fed the incipient American imperialism that facilitated America's entry into Napoleon's war against Britain as a U.S. bid to conquer British-controlled Canadian territories. On the eve of the world war of 1812, Napoleon culminated France’s campaign to provoke America's entry into his war with Great Britain through deceptive diplomacy in the trade conflict engulfing the three countries.

4 In the cases of Napolen and Hitler, their careers were respectively guided by a single revolution within one nation-state. In a world of globalization, however, Bin Laden’s career was guided by two revolutions, the greater global revolution of Radical Islam and its vanguard sub-set, the Afghan revolution. Bin Laden’s historical parallels with the other two world-war provocateurs can be understood within the context of either the former or the latter revolution. In discussing the nation of Radical Islam, emphasis is placed on its identity as an Islamic Republic. The nation of Radical Islam exists as a stateless ideological network bound by adherence to overarching fundamentalist Islamic tenets and to pursuit of war against the Cold War superpowers and Israel. The loosely organized government of the stateless nation exhibits the properties of a theocratic republic. Evincing a selective incorporation of the Enlightenment political philosophy enshrined in the republic of Revolutionary France, Radical Islam theoretically divides national power among one or more executives, a councils of religious scholars and, less directly, its constituents. Nevertheless, the theocratic government emphasizes popular submission to the rule of Islamic doctrine, greatly limiting the opportunity for public dissent. Although modern ideological platforms like the Internet have enhanced the cohesion and influence of Radical Islam, the stateless nation’s foundation is marked by the 1979 global Islamic Revolution. At this time preexisting international networks of radical Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood converged into a global entity, collectively pursuing shared objectives through a stateless government modeled after Islamic republics like Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. As sub-sections of the nation of Radical Islam, stateless networks like Hamas and Al Qaeda were explicitly chartered in the form a stateless republic espousing a limited application of the Enlightenment principles that governed the Revolutionary French Republic.

5 A more general parallel description encompasses the attack on the United States in 1811:

In Year 23, America's foremost foreign adversary launched military attacks from off-land on thousands of U.S. citizens and provoked America's entry into combat in the incipient world war in Year 24. These attacks were caused by recent U.S. naval developments, including an attack on a USS warship and the establishment of a U.S. economic embargo of this foreign adversary. America's culpability for its own entry into the world war revealed the U.S. administration's predisposition to declare a state of war in order to attack a nation other than the perpetrator of the attack. Napoleon, Hitler and Bin Laden each played a critical role in instigating the United States to enter the world war.

In 1811, America's foremost foreign adversary Great Britain launched a campaign of military attacks in the Atlantic Ocean on thousands of U.S. citizens manning the American merchant marine, forcefully impressing sailors into service in the British Navy and confiscating vessels and cargo. These maritime attacks were the principle provocation that led to America's entry into combat in the incipient world war in Year 24. These attacks were caused by recent U.S. naval developments, including an attack on a USS frigate that had escalated the U.S. naval war with Britain, as well as the establishment of a U.S. economic embargo of Britain in early 1811. America's culpability for its own entry into the world war revealed the Madison Administration's predisposition to declare a state of war in order to invade and conquer areas of Canada. Napoleon played a critical role in instigating the United States to enter the world war by carefully fomenting the U.S.-British trade conflict.

6 Many authoritative investigative sources, including the 9/11 Commission, have formally concluded that the 9/11 plot was initiated in 1999. Although there is less direct evidence of a war pact between Bin Laden and Omar in 1999, it is unlikely that Bin Laden could reasonably hope to conceal the 9/11 plot from his state sponsor throughout the two years that it took to execute the plot. Any appearance of such a colossal deception of his Taliban hosts could have fatally ruptured a vital alliance that appears to have only strengthened over time. Bin Laden's only recourse in this situation would have been to inform Omar of the plot upon its inception, as he apparently did judging by the seemingly unbreakable alliance that the Taliban and Al Qaeda share today.

i The Road to Al Qaeda by Montasser al-Zayyat, 2004; http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2006_09_27_exclusives.html

ii The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright, 2006, pgs. 88,92,146-7.

iii The Road to Al Qaeda by Montasser al-Zayyat, 2004, p.65-66, 69.

iv www.cnn.com/2002/world/europe/10/26/binladen.will/index.html

v The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright, 2006, p. 173.

vi Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, 2004, p. 87-88, 153, 155, 212; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/interviews/bearden.html

vii Napoleon and the Awakening of Europe by Felix Markham, 1975, p.42-3, 53, 91-95.

viii Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, 2004, p. 203-204; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/interviews/bearden.html

ix U.S. FUNDING CUTS TO AFGHANISTAN: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard Clarke, 2004, p.52-52; Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, 2004, p. 216,220,227,233-235, 264; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/interviews/bearden.html ; U.S. INDIFFERENCE TO STABILIZING AFGHANISTAN: Ghost Wars by Steve Coll, p. 196, 208-210, 217.

x www.traveldocs.com/af/economy.htm

xi Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, 2004, p. 216.

xii Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, 2004, p. 233.

xiii Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, 2004, p. 203,211-212.

xiv Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, 2004, p. 203-204.

xv Much of this information about the establishment of Al Qaeda's international empire in 1994 is available in the: The 9/11 Commission Report, electronic version (Microsoft Reader format), p. 189, 294. Also see The New Jackals by Simon Reeve, 1999.

xvi The 9/11 Commission Report, electronic version (Microsoft Reader format), p. 654, 668-669.

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