Osama bin Laden was born in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was the founder of Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group that carried out a major attack on United States soil, famously known as 9/11. The group has claimed responsibility for the attacks on other numerous assaults worldwide, especially in the U.S. interests in foreign nations. Osama bin Laden justified his actions based on the continued stay of the United States forces in the Middle East, which he had vehemently opposed. He vowed to continue attacking the U.S. to force their soldiers to leave his country and other Middle East nations. Therefore, to understand the philosophy of bin Laden as related to war, it is imperative to discuss why he became a terrorist and why he was obsessed with fighting America and its allies.
Osama bin Laden became an international terrorist and jihad extremist who organized and executed terror attacks worldwide. His father was a billionaire who owned construction companies in the Middle East (Scheuer 2011). After his birth, bin Laden’s parents divorced, and he went to live with his mother, who remarried again. It is claimed that bin Laden inherited about 25 million dollars from his billionaire father. After high school, he went to King Abdulaziz University and took a course in economics and business. While in university, he memorized and interpreted the Quran as he was a devout Sunni Muslim. (Miller, Vandome , & McBrewster 6). Under those premises, it is evident that bin Laden was a bright student both in law and religious disciplines.
After college, Osama bin Laden became a successful businessperson interested in the machinery and construction industry. He left for Pakistan and funded the Mujahideen fighters during the Soviet war (Scheuer 2011). Subsequently, Mujahideen were also funded and provided with weapons by the United States. After fighting, the Soviets lost the war and withdrew from the country in 1989, and Osama returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero. The U.S. branded him and his soldiers as Freedom Fighters. However, after the war was over, Osama was disappointed with the corrupt Saudi Arabia government and the heavy presence of U.S. soldiers. Osama bin Laden publicly condemned the Saudi government, which failed to silence him (Miller, Vandome, & McBrewster 2009). After that, he was banished from his country and went to South Sudan in 1992, where he continued to condemn the Saudi government.
While still in Sudan, Osama bin Laden formed the Al-Qaeda terror organization, which comprised the soldiers he had met while fighting in Afghanistan. Their motive was to spread Islamic law all over the world. In fact, the group funded, organized, and executed terror attacks worldwide. Osama bin Laden blamed the United States for the evils committed in the Middle East and demanded that they leave. However, America did not oblige. Upon returning to Afghanistan after he was banished from Sudan, bin Laden declared war against the United States (Scheuer 2011) as he wanted the U.S soldiers to leave the Middle East and stop interfering in their affairs.
Osama bin Laden planned and executed attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi and Tanzania, which left hundreds dead. After the attacks, the FBI placed Osama in the top ten most wanted persons. However, even after these assaults, the United States did not leave the Middle East, and in 2001, Osama attacked the United States. Through his men, he was able to hijack commercial planes; two of them crashed into the Twin Towers, and the third aircraft crashed into the Pentagon, an attack that left more than 3000 people dead (Woolf 2004). He was doing this to compel the U.S. soldiers to leave the Middle East. Osama bin Laden went into hiding after President George Bush launched a manhunt. However, in May 2011, President Barrack Obama confirmed that the U.S. Special Forces had killed Osama in Pakistan, and his body was buried at sea.
Osama bin Laden was obsessed with attacking the United States, its interests in foreign countries, and the oil-producing nations to anger the public and pressure the U.S. to compel its forces to leave the Middle East. Osama bin Laden was agitated after the Saudi Arabian government failed to recognize his efforts in the war against the Soviets. Instead, much credit was given to the United States forces, allowing them to stay in the Middle East nations, especially Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. The continued stay of the American forces made Osama form a terrorist group that focused on attacking the United States to force them to leave the Middle East (Mockaitis 2010). He believed that the United States had encouraged chaos in the Middle East; therefore, bin Laden did not want them to continue staying in the area. He argued that the United States interfered with the operations of the Middle East nations.
However, his attacks did not yield much since the United States continued to dominate the place. In fact, the U.S. intensified the operations, which focused on capturing or killing him. The documents found in his hideout in Pakistan proved that he was fixated on attacking America since the records indicated that he was pleading and pressuring the Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups to mend their rivalries and focus on fighting the Americans.
In conclusion, Osama was well-educated and later became a successful businessperson who used his money to fund soldiers fighting against the Soviets. After the war was over and the Soviets were defeated, the Saudi Arabian government failed to recognize its efforts and allowed the United States to continue staying and taking charge of the Saudi Arabian government. On the other hand, Osama bin Laden was against their stay and claimed they were responsible for the evils committed in the Middle East. He accused the U.S. government of interfering in Middle East affairs. In a bid to force the army to leave, he planned and executed attacks on the U.S. and its interests in foreign nations. However, his efforts were unsuccessful, as the U.S. Special Forces killed him in May 2011 in Pakistan.
References
Miller F., Vandome A., & McBrewster J. (2009). Osama Bin Laden: Childhood, education and personal life, Bin Laden family, belief and ideology of Osama Bin Laden, September 11 attacks. Alphascript Publishing.
Mockaitis, T. R. (2010). Osama Bin Laden: A biography. Greenwood.
Scheuer, M. (2011). Osama Bin Laden. Oxford University Press.
Woolf, A.(2004) Osama Bin Laden. Lerner Publications.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
