[« I hate this....] [Typical Busch Stadium sight.... »]
09/15/2004: Who's the Al Qaeda candidate?
According to Karen Kwiatkowski, it's not Senator Kerry:
What have Bush and his neoconservative team really accomplished? They toppled Saddam Hussein, America now militarily threatens both the Shia government in Iran and the secular one in Syria, the House of Saud is crumbling and we have removed American troops from Saudi Arabian territory.And there are fools who say "Thank God it was Bush who was president on September 11 instead of Gore." Like Al could have possibly fucked up more?
These achievements match – word for word – the oft-stated goals of the Wahhabist Sunni radical Osama bin Ladin.
Bush has clearly delivered the goods for Osama, our one time friend in fighting Soviet communism. The turmoil, destruction of economic and social life in Iraq, the escalation of political Islam there, both Sunni and Shia, and the sheer daily injustices visited on the very people we were "liberating" gives al Qaeda added bonuses of recruitment opportunities, local support, and tactical access to Americans and American interests.
...
Our actions in Afghanistan have resulted in warlord rule and competition throughout most of the countryside and a resurgence of the national flower, the opium poppy – again, a profitable black economy that eventually supports not only al Qaeda directly, but after it is cleaned and fluffed and sanitized, those profits are deposited in national and global banks, fueling the global financial system, and with it those who invest in American empire.
And sadly, the military effort to capture bin Ladin in Afghanistan has not succeeded in the past three years due to a combination of political/tactical decisions made in Washington, and the pullout of logistics and manpower from Afghanistan in order to pursue Bush (and strangely, Osama bin Ladin) objectives in Iraq.
...
If we are looking for entertaining issues, why not this one: Which candidate has done more to further the aims of al Qaeda around the world? Which candidate has killed more enemies of al Qaeda as well as directly destroyed more American troops and military capability? Which candidate has done more to recruit followers and sympathizers of bin Ladin and his message of political and violently anti-American Islam?
George W. Bush may honestly believe he has made the world a safer place. Of course, the blood on the ground and splashing against camera lenses around the whole world tells a very different story. But somewhere Osama is smiling, more influential and powerful than ever. Surely that counts for something.
Len on 09.15.04 @ 09:17 PM CST
