"We have repeatedly issued warnings, over a number of years. Following these warnings and these calls, anti-American explosions took place in a number of Islamic countries"
About this Quote
The line is engineered to launder violence into the language of procedure. "Repeatedly", "over a number of years", "warnings", "calls" - it reads like a compliance memo, not a manifesto. That bureaucratic calm is the point: bin Laden frames terror as the predictable outcome of ignored notifications, as if mass-casualty attacks are merely the enforcement mechanism of a contract the other party refused to honor. The rhetoric tries to flip moral polarity, casting the United States not as a target but as a negligent actor who "chose" consequences.
Notice the passive construction: "anti-American explosions took place". Not "we bombed" or "we killed", but events that simply occurred, like weather. This is intentional distance from agency and blood. It offers followers a cleaner story to inhabit and outsiders a slippery argument to rebut: if the violence is framed as spontaneous public backlash across "a number of Islamic countries", then the speaker becomes less a commander and more a diagnostician of global anger.
The phrase "Islamic countries" is also doing political work. It compresses diverse societies into a single civilizational bloc, implying a unified constituency and a broad mandate. In context - post-1990s U.S. military presence in the Gulf, sanctions on Iraq, support for authoritarian allies, and the Israel-Palestine conflict - he is tapping real grievances while claiming ownership of them. The subtext is recruitment and legitimation: we warned you, the region agrees, history is on our side. The intent is to make premeditated violence sound like reluctant, almost civic, retaliation.
Notice the passive construction: "anti-American explosions took place". Not "we bombed" or "we killed", but events that simply occurred, like weather. This is intentional distance from agency and blood. It offers followers a cleaner story to inhabit and outsiders a slippery argument to rebut: if the violence is framed as spontaneous public backlash across "a number of Islamic countries", then the speaker becomes less a commander and more a diagnostician of global anger.
The phrase "Islamic countries" is also doing political work. It compresses diverse societies into a single civilizational bloc, implying a unified constituency and a broad mandate. In context - post-1990s U.S. military presence in the Gulf, sanctions on Iraq, support for authoritarian allies, and the Israel-Palestine conflict - he is tapping real grievances while claiming ownership of them. The subtext is recruitment and legitimation: we warned you, the region agrees, history is on our side. The intent is to make premeditated violence sound like reluctant, almost civic, retaliation.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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