READING OSAMA'S MESSAGES By Diane Perlman AlterNet November 21, 2002 While media experts were preoccupied with analyzing Osama bin Laden's voice, they failed to comprehend, or even read, his actual words. Speculation about hidden meanings and secret clues totally ignored the obvious intended message, which is so clear that it doesn't even need decoding. We have received three clear, consistent messages from bin Laden in the last year: on Nov. 11, 2001; Oct. 6, 2002; and Nov. 12, 2002. All are credible, plausible, and make psychological sense. They have all been grossly misinterpreted. All of bin Laden's messages have a consistent theme, emotional tone and logic. All are about reciprocity, expressed in many different ways. The message from Nov. 12, 2002, began, "The road to safety begins by ending the aggression. Reciprocal treatment is part of justice. The incidents that have taken place ... are only reactions and reciprocal actions. " Bin Laden's messages are misinterpreted as unconditional threats and vows to attack. This is incorrect. They are all conditional warnings that whatever we do, they will respond in kind. Bin Laden's quotes: Nov. 11, 2001: Bin Laden said that he had nuclear weapons. He said that he was holding them only as a deterrent, and that he had no intention of using them unless we did. If the U.S. used them, he would reserve the right to use them in retaliation. Sun Oct 6, 2002: "By God, the youths of God are preparing for you things that would fill your hearts with terror and target your economic lifeline, until you stop your oppression and aggression against Muslims." ..."So let America increase the pace of this conflict or decrease it, and we will respond in kind." Nov. 12, 2002: "If you were distressed by the deaths of your men ... remember our children who are killed in Palestine and Iraq everyday ... Why should fear, killing, destruction, displacement, orphaning and widowing continue to be our lot, while security, stability and happiness be your lot? This is unfair. It is time we get even. You will be killed just as you kill, and will be bombed just as you bomb.'' We should understand that the overriding sentiment in bin Laden's messages is about the effects of our actions in provoking a reciprocal response. This is credible. Reciprocity is guaranteed. There are two ways to get even. The way to be more secure is to make your enemy more secure. The humiliation of Versailles led to the Holocaust. The Marshall plan turned enemies into allies. Envy and humiliation provoke destruction. It is incumbent upon us to turn the tide. Liberation from Retaliation We are on the verge of going to war under the illusion of preventing a threat. What has been sold as a "preemptive strike," a misuse of the term, is actually a provocative strike. This war will unleash a cascade of unintended consequences. Terrorist attacks are likely planned for the onset of war. Terrorism is a form of asymmetrical warfare. There is no amount of domination that cannot be turned against us, demonstrated by Sept. 11. Misinterpreting Osama's message fuels the irrational drive toward war. With asymmetrical warfare and weapons of mass destruction, the consequences are unthinkable. By exaggerating the threat and censoring the message of the conditionality of violence, we collude with the forces that promise permanent world war. If we consider that bin Laden's theme of reciprocity could be authentic and if we take that message seriously and accurately, we could shift to strategies that will reduce tension, and have legitimacy in their own right. We could work to resolve the Palestinian problem, which has to be done anyway, for many reasons. If we use alternative strategies to war in Iraq, if we support economic development in Afghanistan and other places, and reduce the suffering and the envy, we can begin to de-escalate the cycle of violence. If we act in good faith to reduce tension and to address just grievances that fuel recruits to terrorism, we have everything to gain. This win-win approach could promote mutual security. If it does fail, we have lost nothing, and still have the capacity to retaliate. I end this by repeating bin Laden: "The road to safety begins by ending the aggression." The choice is ours. Diane Perlman, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist, is co-chair of the Committee on Global Violence and Security, Psychologists for Social Responsibility and author of "Intersubjective Dimensions of Terrorism and its Transcendence" in The Psychology of Terrorism, edited by Chris Stout. For full post click
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