Bergen on Bin Laden in Vanity Fair

A new Peter Bergen piece on Osama bin Laden in January's Vanity Fair.

Bergen takes a backseat to no one in his expertise on bin Laden, but I think he holds two slightly paradoxical beliefs. In a September Newsweek article, Bergen wrote: "Bin Laden remains important as the guiding icon that is drawing these people to jihad." Yet he also observes in his new piece that al-Qaeda's "assets are few, and shrinking." He says this is because al-Qaeda's ideology will eventually sow the seeds of its own destruction absent U.S./Western overreaction.

If the former is true, then killing bin Laden is critical. If the latter is reality, than kinetic action and the collateral damage it produces actually prolongs al-Qaeda's existence.

For my money, I think bin Laden's personal significance is overstated. As Bergen's title ("Bin Laden's Lonely Crusade") implies, bin Laden is like a general without an army. He is not able to communicate or direct al-Qaeda's operations, yet because his ideology has gone viral, he does not need to be alive to inspire extremists. Thus, killing him will not "defeat" al-Qaeda.

This is not to say the United States should stop devoting military and intelligence assets to hunting Osama bin Laden.

Our persistence in targeting Bin Laden has resulted in the deaths of numerous secondary al Qaeda leaders. Their removal has weakened the organization's ability to execute terrorist attacks. Also, simple justice demands that Bin Laden, Ayman al- Zawahiri and other al Qaeda leaders be brought to account for the murder of more than 3,000 Americans and countless other civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

(To be fair, Bergen does not believe U.S. policy should be completely passive. He writes: "Containment, when it comes to al-Qaeda, means putting continual pressure on the group's safe havens, in particular in Pakistan, but also in Yemen, in Somalia, and anywhere else that seems poised to become a base. Doing so does not require invasion or total war. It requires only quick attacks and covert insertions that keep terrorists from becoming settled or secure.")