How did Bin Laden go from rich playboy to the most wanted man on earth?
Soviet Russia was trying to conquer Afghanistan, and the USA was pretty worried they were going to succeed
They knew that the only way the proud Afghans would accept aid is if it came from a Muslim country.
They pleaded to Saudi Arabia, who had may rich princes in the royal family to create an army and help to free Afghanistan from the Russians, as the Muslims needed a leader to rally around.
But none of the princes said yes, too busy partying in Bahrain most likely.
Young Osama Bin Laden was not part of the royal family, but was very rich. He was disgusted by the behaviour of the Saudi princes and decided that he was going to step in to help his fellow Muslims.
He used his influence to rally the call to Jihad and it was answered from all over the Muslim world. He then went to Afghanistan with his new army and successful liberated it from Russia, much to the joy of the USA.
Interestingly he used his family construction business to rebuild and fortify many of the Afghan roads which are still in use today.
After Afghanistan he went to Sudan where he was treated like a King and built some more roads.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait, the USA again asked Saudi to send the call to jihad, but they had beef with Bin Laden who criticised their rule and so they said no, instead the US army was deployed to Kuwait, the first time it had set foot in a Muslim country.
Fun fact, if you ever go to Saudi you will see the construction groups workers all wear vests that say ‘Bin Laden Construction’ on them, bit of a shock the first time you read it.
I got most of this from Robert Fisks book about his experiences in the Middle East, highly recommend, he’s one of the only people to ever interview Bin Laden
