Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America

I read "Through Our Enemies' Eyes" while on active duty with the Nevada National Guard in the Middle East. I have spent eight years in this part of the world, and Anonymous has pegged the viewpoint of many people in this region concerning the United States and Osama Bin Laden. Opinion here isn't uniform--but the United States is seen as an outsider.Osama Bin Laden is not a new type of threat. The Assassin cult in this area was also a stateless movement promoting religious conformity to an ideal--and may have been the force that ended the Islamic empire. Then there was another stateless movement of anarchists, the Terrorists, about 100 years ago. The most successful movement went from stateless to world superpower during the period 1830 to 1990--yes, those Cold War foes of the West, the Communists. The Communists were very much a stateless organization until after the Russian Revolution. Once they established themselves as a national government, the threat of Communism changed. That's why Trotsky was murdered in Mexico--he was trying to export revolution the "old fashioned way" like Bin Laden is doing now. Problem: having a homeland means being a target. Stalin had to kill Trotsky in order to save the Soviet Union.I have purchased several copies of this book as gifts for friends and relatives still serving in military and government office because this is an important book for their professional bookshelves. My one reservation is that the threat posed by Bin Laden's organization (and the greater threat posed by Bin Laden as a symbol) (and the even greater threat of American myopia) is that Bin Laden is not really something new or different. The author may have chosen to portray Bin Laden as "new" because the current American government mindset--the one that foundered in Vietnam--blinds us to reality in the modern world.

To be in a citizen in a nation which is spending endless billions on the war on terrorism and which kills people in all sorts of ways--most recently with drones--and not to realize why this whole thing is going on.... Ostrich. FOX news believer, president believer... Ostrich.

Seen from the other side of the fence, makes one wonder about our intelligence or maybe the propaganda to make the enemy bad. Not good for us, but viewed from the other side, no wonder people are attracted to follow bin Laden.

CLEARLY SHOWS HIS INTELLIGENCE AND HOW EASY VERY FEW WITH VERY LITTLE CAN CHANGE OUR WAY OF LIVING AND THE HIGH COST IT HAS TO HASTEN AMERICA'S BANKRUPTSY.

ok

quite good

This book is four years old in facts yet has a 2006 copyright. Is beneficial for someone not familiar with Osama bin Laden but little benefit for someone who has good backround knowledge.

Interesting

well written and interesting .