The Independent on 6 December 1993, talking about Osama Bin Laden, after the Soviets were out of Afghanistan and he was moving on to construction projects. The article is here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/antisoviet-warrior-puts-his-army-on-the-road-to-peace-the-saudi-businessman-who-recruited-mujahedin-now-uses-them-for-largescale-building-projects-in-sudan-robert-fisk-met-him-in-almatig-1465715.html
Just an odd juxtaposition that caught my eye.
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“Osama bin Laden, 1993”
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And I'm sure that if you go back to the 1980 newspapers, you'll find a number of references to Saddam Hussein. "He'll teach the Ayatollah a lesson!"
What can we learn in the present? I'm not sure. The whole ISIS area is a mess with competing factions, and even in Yemen, our fight against al Qaeda is possibly compromised by a new government that REALLY hates al Qaeda.
+John E. Bredehoft Sure. Iraq might be a former Soviet client state, but Iran was full of those hostage-taking scum who killed Our Modernizing Man in Tehran. Thus pix of Rumsfeld glad-handing Saddam.
I suppose it's all an object lesson as to being careful whom one gets into geopolitical bed with. Still, looking at that article, I have to wonder what was going through OBL's head at the time, and what, if anything, might have changed the course he was on.
Note that according to CNN, bin Laden's course was actually set four years BEFORE 1993. It turns out that the reporter missed the reason why bin Laden was in Sudan, and not, say, Saudi Arabia.
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1989 – The Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan. Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia to work for the family construction firm, the Bin Laden Group.
August 7, 1990 – Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, U.S. troops arrive in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden is outraged at their presence, and soon begins to target the United States for its presence on Saudi soil near the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina.
1991 – Bin Laden is expelled by the Saudi regime. Eventually he and his followers relocate to Sudan, taking assets that had grown to an estimated $250 million, according to some officials (others estimate a much lower value). There, al Qaeda begins to evolve into a terror network.
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http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/30/world/osama-bin-laden-fast-facts/index.html