Herein, Peter Bergen's "Five Myths about Osama bin Laden." Bergen is the most authoritative voice on bin Laden, but I think he's guilty of one simplification. He is right that President Bush used the "they hate us for our freedoms" trope quite frequently, but nobody ever acknowledges that it didn't originate with Bush. Actually, on August 20, 1998, while addressing the nation on the missile strikes that initiated the 13-year hunt for bin Laden, President Clinton said:
Our target was terror, our mission was clear -- to strike at the network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Osama bin Laden. . . . They have made the United States their adversary precisely because of what we stand for and what we stand against. . . . And so this morning, based on the unanimous recommendation of my national security team, I ordered our armed forces to take action to counter an imminent threat from the bin Laden network.In other words, "war on a noun," the idea that al-Qaeda hated us for our values, and the doctrine of pre-emption, all themes for which George W. Bush was mocked, were also found in the preceding administration's vernacular.
Also today, Hampton Sides is in the Wall Street Journal's excellent book section, listing the "Five Best: Manhunt Tales" (non-forthcoming category, no doubt). Hampton's "Hellhound on His Trail"-- about the search for James Earl Ray after the Martin Luther King assassination -- get great reviews, and is actually about number three or four on my "To Read" list. When I've read his book I'll come up with a comparable list of my own.
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