| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Why liberals are ignoring the bin Laden tape |
| 2007-09-11 |
| James Taranto, "Best of the Web," Wall Street Journal Today, when America's enemies speak, young liberal journalists cover their ears and go LA LA LA LA LA! When the latest Osama bin Laden video came out last week, the guys at TalkingPointsMemo.com felt it necessary to publish a series of posts saying that everyone really ought to ignore it. . . . Hmm, the TalkingPointers have certainly spilled a lot of (figurative) ink on a message they claim to think everyone should ignore. But if you look at the transcript of the video, you can see why they so conspicuously do not want anyone to think about what bin Laden is saying. It's certainly true that he--or whoever actually wrote and recited the words on the tape--aims to "sow division." His method of doing so is to espouse a variety of mostly liberal causes. He seems to view as his natural allies Americans who seek defeat in Iraq and fault congressional Democrats for failing to have brought it about, who loathe "neoconservatives like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Richard Pearle [sic]" and admire the work of Noam Chomsky and Michael Scheuer, who see U.S. military servicemen as chumps, who live in fear of "global warming," and who anathematize capitalism and corporations. In what appears to be a sop to the Ron Paul crowd, he also calls for a flat tax. It seems both fair and accurate to note that there is a confluence of interests between bin Laden and those Americans who seek defeat in Iraq. It is little wonder that this is an embarrassment to the latter. But it would be unfair and inaccurate to suggest that this is anything more than a de facto tactical alliance. The Angry Left wants America to lose in Iraq for its own ideological and partisan purposes, which have little to do with the establishment of a global caliphate. So what are we to make of bin Laden's striking a pose as a global warmist who hates capitalism? Here's a theory: Slate reports that by one estimate 10% of al Qaeda's "soldiers in the global jihad" are converts to radical Islamism, a religion/ideology that, as Slate puts it, "has become a magnet for some of the world's angriest people." |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #9 newc - we are the new rome... just took the civil war path with support for Spartcus.... of course that neglects civil service and bureaucracy from Ming China. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-09-11 19:39 |
| #8 If I had time for Moslem crap, I would be knee deep in it. If I had politicos that really do not give a damn, I would say we are in Rome. EDOM. |
| Posted by: newc 2007-09-11 19:25 |
| #7 If it is a pre-attack announcement, and if the Islamofascists do manage to pull one off, then there will surely be hell to pay - AFTER they or their allies kill off the soft underbelly of the west and the USA and the rest of us stand up and start fighting back with all the ruthless fierocity such a war deserves. (And before the mods come down on me, I am NOT advocating the killing of any of my fellow westerner's or Americans- just saying that the ones who are going to bleed (and whine) the most are the same ones who are most likely to die first). Defend yourselves - and be prepared to defend yourselves and your families and friends. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-09-11 18:00 |
| #6 I don't know what the disarmed Euros plan to do, but here in the Land of the Second Amendment™.... And I won't even feel bad about it. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-09-11 17:16 |
| #5 I'd call it the beginning of the end game. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2007-09-11 16:58 |
| #4 I share OldSpook's concern. Given what little I know of the the koran, one thing has always stuck with me. Per koranic ROEs, the offer to convert or die generally precedes any major effort to wage war on the infidels and kheffirs. Make of that what you will. |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2007-09-11 14:48 |
| #3 I think that 'another strike' would mean that the gloves come off, quite what happens after that is anyones guess. *snort* I'll believe that when I see it. In all likelihood, another strike means the blind won't be able to find cabs, and Porky Pig will be banned from the airwaves. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-09-11 11:30 |
| #2 I think that 'another strike' would mean that the gloves come off, quite what happens after that is anyones guess. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2007-09-11 10:42 |
| #1 Tell you the main reason: THis was AlQaeda's final Koranic warning: convert or die. Islam requires that the offer be made, the invitation to conversion be extended. If it is rejected then we are infidels and kheffirs, and are fair game - we must be either subjugated or killed by the word of the Prophet. That is why this is an important video: he is doing what is required by the Koran before striking. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2007-09-11 09:40 |