He is the author of “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Bin Laden’s al Qaeda affiliate in Iraq helped to trigger the Iraqi civil war in 2006, during which tens of thousands of Iraqis died. And this is only a partial list of the mayhem carried out by bin Laden and his followers. The “Letter to America” also decries the United States’ role in global warming, American tolerance for homosexuality and the drug culture that exists in the United States. It might behoove those posting on TikTok to understand some of this history before praising bin Laden’s purported brilliance.

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