As Ukraine crisis unfolds, Azerbaijan pivots closer to Russia

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden famously said, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.”

To bin Laden, President Ronald Reagan’s withdrawal from Lebanon in the wake of Iran’s early 1980s terror and kidnapping campaign, and then the Clinton withdrawal from Somalia after the “Black Hawk Down” episode, showed the United States to be a paper tiger. Terrorism, in bin Laden’s mind, worked before and would work again.