Politics & Power Quote by Cofer Black

Cofer Black’s line is doing bureaucratic work with prosecutorial force: it turns a messy, asymmetrical conflict into a legible moral and legal frame. By anchoring the claim in “bin Laden’s own words,” Black isn’t just citing evidence; he’s laundering policy through quotation, presenting intent as self-authenticated and therefore beyond dispute. It’s a classic post-9/11 move: if the enemy says civilians are targets, then the state can recast its response as compelled rather than chosen.

The phrasing “war against the United States” is deliberate. It hoists terrorism into the category of war, a word that carries permissions: expanded executive power, exceptional measures, a presumption of indefinite duration. “Declared” adds the cadence of a formal proclamation, as if bin Laden were a head of state rather than the leader of a non-state network, nudging the audience toward a battlefield mindset.

The sharpest subtext sits in “American civilians should be considered as combatants.” It’s a moral shock tactic, yes, but it also preemptively narrows sympathy and complicates debates about proportionality. If civilians are already being treated as combatants by the adversary, the implication is that normal peacetime categories are obsolete. That framing helps justify policies that blur their own lines: surveillance that treats ordinary life as suspect, detention regimes that sidestep criminal procedure, and military actions sold as defensive necessity.

Black’s intent is less to inform than to authorize. The quote is a rhetorical bridge from outrage to consent, converting terror’s indiscriminate violence into a mandate for the state’s extraordinary discretion.