WASHINGTON (AP) – If President Barack Obama or his predecessor thought fighting a war with coalition partners is hard, they might consider Osama bin Laden’s frustrations.
Among documents gathered in the 2011 raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan compound is a lengthy complaint about the difficulties of working with Arabs, Uzbeks, Turks, “Russians of all kinds,” Germans and others in al-Qaida’s global jihad against America.
“Unfortunately, there is so much chaos on the ground,” he wrote. “In general we suffer from unjustified divisions and alliances, which I call the ‘fake commandants.'”
Broadly, the dozens of documents released Wednesday by the Obama administration portray bin Laden as a leader cut off from his underlings – disappointed by their failures, beset by their complaints and regretting years of separation from much of his family.
