Bin Laden Is Dead! (But His Goal Lives On)

Sadly, Osama bin Laden may be achieving his top goal, even in death.

Can a dead man’s No. 1 goal live on?

Even as the U.S. Navy Seals fought their way into the walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in the early hours of May 1 and “took out” archterrorist Osama bin Laden—the man who had taunted the great superpower for almost a decade—his organization’s main goal was advancing, not retreating.

No, not the goal of converting all mankind to radical Islam, nor the goal of raining even more carnage on the hated “Crusader Zionist alliance.”

Bin Laden’s principal goal

What exactly was bin Laden’s principal goal? He told us. Back in November of 2004, in a videotaped message, he declared that the goal of al-Qaeda was to bankrupt the United States.

“We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing too great for Allah. … All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations. ... Every dollar of al-Qaeda defeated a million dollars, by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs. … As for the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars.”

At the time, he cited the fact that British estimates were that al-Qaeda had spent some $500,000 to carry out the 9/11 attacks, a figure that pales into insignificance by comparison with the amount spent by the United States in counterterrorist measures since then (CNN.com, Nov. 1, 2004).

Trillions of dollars

Bin Laden is dead. Yet his goal may yet be bearing fruit. CNN.com on May 4, 2011, carried a video feature from reporter Richard Quest, titled “Bin Laden Cost the US Trillions.” According to the video, bin Laden cost the U.S. economy an estimated $2.5 trillion! Yet Quest goes on to point out the additional opportunity cost—what might have been done with $2.5 trillion, had it not been spent on counterterrorism. We will never know exactly the value of all those lost dollars.

What’s more, there are more billions in counterterrorism expenses yet to come. Did bin Laden know that? “Of course he did. … The plan was to bring down capitalism as we know it. … It was an attack on our way of life, on our structures, on our market economies, on all the things that we have stood for,” declared Quest.

As the publicity concerning the death of Osama bin Laden begins to subside, Americans will have to turn their attention once again to their weakened economy. A debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion, expected to be hit sometime in August, will shortly have to be addressed by Congress. Add to that a budget deficit of some $1.267 trillion, a trade deficit that’s running around $46 billion each month, and a weakening of the dollar—until now (but for how much longer?) the world’s reserve currency—and the immensity of our economic problems begins to become clear.

Playing into bin Laden’s hand?

Osama bin Laden is dead. Yet his legacy lives on. He wanted to bankrupt the United States. He promoted that goal with his terrorist activities. Yet it may be Americans themselves who bring about the declared goal of bin Laden’s organization, by not dealing with the economic challenges they face. And what would that mean for the security of the Western world?

It is not the crazy rants of a hate-filled terrorist that are being played out before our eyes. It is Bible prophecy itself. Stay tuned.

Ralph Levy is a minister of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, living in Ohio.