"This resemblance became clear in the Bush the father's visits to the region. He wound up being impressed by the royal and military regimes and envied them for staying decades in their positions and embezzling the nation's money with no supervision"
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It reads like a sneer aimed less at George H.W. Bush than at the entire moral branding of American power. Bin Laden is trying to flip the usual script: the US sells itself as the adult in the room, the exporter of accountability, the scold of corrupt autocracies. Here he alleges the opposite - not just complicity, but admiration. The line’s sting comes from its deliberate bluntness: “envied them” is chosen to be radioactive. It’s not “tolerated” or “supported” (the language of realpolitik); it’s an emotion, suggesting American leaders secretly want what regional strongmen have: permanence, impunity, and a cash register with no auditor.
The specific intent is recruitment through cynicism. By depicting Washington as an envious patron of “royal and military regimes,” he offers a tidy moral simplification for audiences already furious at decades of US alliances with Gulf monarchies and security states. The phrase “with no supervision” is the operative subtext: he’s not only accusing local rulers of theft, he’s accusing the West of providing the conditions that make theft durable - weapons, diplomatic cover, and selective silence.
Context matters: bin Laden’s propaganda thrives on the gap between American rhetoric and Middle Eastern realities. He weaponizes that hypocrisy to delegitimize both sides at once: regimes as kleptocracies, the US as their cheering sponsor. It’s agitprop dressed as analysis, effective because it anchors itself to a recognizable grievance, then yanks it toward a totalizing indictment that makes violence feel, to some, like the only “honest” response.
The specific intent is recruitment through cynicism. By depicting Washington as an envious patron of “royal and military regimes,” he offers a tidy moral simplification for audiences already furious at decades of US alliances with Gulf monarchies and security states. The phrase “with no supervision” is the operative subtext: he’s not only accusing local rulers of theft, he’s accusing the West of providing the conditions that make theft durable - weapons, diplomatic cover, and selective silence.
Context matters: bin Laden’s propaganda thrives on the gap between American rhetoric and Middle Eastern realities. He weaponizes that hypocrisy to delegitimize both sides at once: regimes as kleptocracies, the US as their cheering sponsor. It’s agitprop dressed as analysis, effective because it anchors itself to a recognizable grievance, then yanks it toward a totalizing indictment that makes violence feel, to some, like the only “honest” response.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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