Over the weekend, the Pentagon released videos of Osama watching TV reports of himself. Erica Chenoweth analyzes:
On the surface, this disclosure seems to confirm an incredibly human desire for notoriety—an attribute that Louise Richardson emphasizes in her book What Terrorists Want. Ultimately, instead of being people with grand objectives—freedom from oppression, the restoration of justice, the purification of souls—terrorists may simply be people who adopt these narratives to justify their own self-glorification. Instead of using violence instrumentally to secure certain political objectives, terrorists may be individuals who already want to use violence to satisfy personal desires for prestige—and look good doing it.
Lawrence Wright weighs in:
"He's always been very careful about controlling his image and here was nurturing his image, watching himself on television in what was the most revealing, most human, least controlled moment of his entire career," Lawrence Wright, Osama bin Laden expert and author of "The Looming Tower," said.
The Dish 