# Did Osama bin Laden deliberately help re-elect G.W. Bush? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 3, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-osama-bin-laden-deliberately-help-re-elect-g-w-bush/815363 "2018-06-03T18:05:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-osama-bin-laden-deliberately-help-re-elect-g-w-bush/815363/21 "2018-06-08T04:26:57Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > [This article](https://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/050711.html) makes a number of interesting points about “the curious symbiosis” between the Bush and Bin Laden families. To encourage others to read the article I won’t quote or summarize it. > > It is interesting that Bin Laden led a good life in Pakistan for several years _after_ George Bush said > _“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.”_ > The Pakistani military, supposedly one of America’s most important regional allies, was probably fully aware of Osama’s location. Leaving the boogy-man alive helped Bush-Cheney to instill fear in Americans, and thus to pursue their agenda. > > I don’t think it’s disputed that al-Qaeda was delighted to have Bush-Cheney in power; this helped provoke anti-American hatred among Arabs. (One al-Qaeda leader told another that “prolonging the war is in our interest.” It was in Cheney’s interest also.) > > On October 29, 2004, Osama bin Laden risked his safety to publish a videotape in which he ranted against Bush. It had been 20 months since his most recent video, and it would be almost 15 months before he released another, but this video was on the eve of the American Presidential election. Coincidence? > > On October 22, Newsweek’s poll showed Bush with a 2% lead. One week later, the same pollsters showed Bush with a 6% lead. Surely Osama’s videotape helped Bush, the “war president,” with some voters. > > Bush spoke publicly as though Osama had miscalculated, helping the anti-terrorist Bush win re-election. The article cited above takes the opposite view: that Osama’s videotape was a deliberate attempt to make Bush re-election more likely. > > What do Dopers think? Yes, I think Osama deliberately helped George W Bush win the election, and he believed that his tape would help do the trick. It’s no secret that terrorist organizations exist because of some sort of existential crisis, and in the case of Al Qaeda, it was a crisis of America and the West’s ability to corrupt heads of state in Muslim countries. Bin Laden wanted to keep the cause alive and he figured that President Kerry’s messaging to the Muslim world would have been less hostile, which would have undermined his _rason d’etre_. Where I disagree is with the notion that Bush wanted Bin Laden alive. I don’t think taking him out in Afghanistan or Pakistan was a simple, straightforward matter. Bush had successfully built an international coalition to go after Al Qaeda. He had even succeeded in building a relationship with Pakistan even over the objections over bombing the Taliban within Pakistan’s military - probably not an easy tightrope to walk. Not killing Bin Laden might seem suspicious but I think the real concern was avoiding being too aggressive with Pakistan. The US badly needed Pakistan’s knowledge of Al Qaeda. Push too hard and it might cause a popular backlash against cooperation with the US, possibly fueling extremism to take a shot at Musharraf. Meanwhile, on the Afghan side of the border, the US was trying to gain the trust of multiple constituencies, so they had to be careful how they (we) proceeded there as well. I’m no apologist for Bush or American foreign policy but that situation wasn’t as easy as it looked. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-osama-bin-laden-deliberately-help-re-elect-g-w-bush/815363/22 "2018-06-08T10:00:25Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Yes, I think Osama deliberately helped George W Bush win the election, and he believed that his tape would help do the trick. It’s no secret that terrorist organizations exist because of some sort of existential crisis, and in the case of Al Qaeda, it was a crisis of America and the West’s ability to corrupt heads of state in Muslim countries. Bin Laden wanted to keep the cause alive and he figured that President Kerry’s messaging to the Muslim world would have been less hostile, which would have undermined his _rason d’etre_. > > Where I disagree is with the notion that Bush wanted Bin Laden alive. I don’t think taking him out in Afghanistan or Pakistan was a simple, straightforward matter. Bush had successfully built an international coalition to go after Al Qaeda. He had even succeeded in building a relationship with Pakistan even over the objections over bombing the Taliban within Pakistan’s military - probably not an easy tightrope to walk. Not killing Bin Laden might seem suspicious but I think the real concern was avoiding being too aggressive with Pakistan. The US badly needed Pakistan’s knowledge of Al Qaeda. Push too hard and it might cause a popular backlash against cooperation with the US, possibly fueling extremism to take a shot at Musharraf. Meanwhile, on the Afghan side of the border, the US was trying to gain the trust of multiple constituencies, so they had to be careful how they (we) proceeded there as well. I’m no apologist for Bush or American foreign policy but that situation wasn’t as easy as it looked. It’s a situation, though, that gets a hell of a lot easier when you take a second look and say “You know, we’re in quite a hole here, maybe we should stop digging.” The fact I said it is proof that it doesn’t take a genius. All the assumptions that something had to be done are covered by the same answer: “Why? Prove it.” I think if Bush had from the start of his term paid all the generals and military advisers double, on the condition that they stay home and shut up, the world would be better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-osama-bin-laden-deliberately-help-re-elect-g-w-bush/815363.md?page=1)