A Christmas Gift from the Irrelevant
– posted by thehim
It’s a holiday weekend, a festive time for all, so before I sign off for the holiday (and to watch football), I’m going to step away from some more serious snark and break down a post from one of the less wingnutty members around here, Karl Swenson of Leaning Straight Up. I’ve checked out Karl’s blog a few times, and I notice that he’s very good at peering into the window of the crazy store, but never actually buying anything inside. Although he comes pretty close with this one:
Strange bedfellows indeed.
Al Qaeda Sends a Message to Democrats
Al Qaeda has sent a message to leaders of the Democratic party that credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists.
In a portion of the tape from al Qaeda No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, made available only today, Zawahri says he has two messages for American Democrats.
“The first is that you aren’t the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost. Rather, the Mujahideen — the Muslim Ummah’s vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq — are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost,” Zawahri said, according to a full transcript obtained by ABC News.
Is this something anyone should be proud of?
If Al Qaeda took credit for the iPod, should Apple be proud of that? If Al Qaeda took credit for the Sonics’ win last night, should Ray Allen be proud of that? The history of Al Qaeda has been filled with them taking credit for things they had little or no part in (like the massacre of U.S. troops in Mogadishu). They do it to make their piddly little organization of misfits appear more powerful than they really are, a goal for which President Bush has been a wonderful ally.
I’d like to hear the democrats come forth and dispute it, even though in a sense they are correct.
Well, it’s actually pretty easy to dispute. The credit for the defeat of the Republicans does not belong to Al Qaeda or the Democrats. It belongs to the Republicans.
While they did not win the election, the terrorist’s actions coupled with the Democratic fear mongering and distaste of conflict was a part of the win.
Interesting. Let’s take each of those three parts separately.
Terrorist’s actions. So the amount of terrorist activity across the globe skyrockets over the past few years, and this is a sign that we should keep doing what we’re doing? Huh?
Democratic fear mongering. I’m not sure what this is. I think it has something to do with pointing to the graph linked above. In some way or another, I must involve introducing people to things called “facts” and “reality”.
Distaste of conflict. This is certainly part of it. I think people are pretty fed up with spending $1 billion a week to increase the amount of terrorism in the world. Call me crazy, but I think they have a point.
The media with it spin mongerting also deserves an honorable mention.
Zawahri calls on the Democrats to negotiate with him and Osama bin Laden, not others in the Islamic world who Zawahri says cannot help.
“And if you don’t refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate,” he said.
It always ends up back in Israel. I will never understand this instinctive hatred of jews.
Well, let’s take a look at Mein Kampf to see how it was possible to get an entire people to fear and hate the Jews (from Chapter X - Causes of the Collapse):
The defensive struggle of the German government at that time against the press - mainly that of Jewish origin - which was slowly ruining the nation was without any straight line, irresolute and above all without any visible goal.
…
The Jew was much too clever to allow his entire press to be attacked uniformly. No, one part of it existed in order to cover the other.
…
A thirty-centimeter shell has always hissed more loudly than a thousand Jewish newspaper vipers - so let them hiss!
Hmm, I think it may have had something to do with convincing people that the media is biased and controlled by nefarious individuals. Strange that…
The irony is a lot of conservatives predicted that the terrorists would see a democrat win as a win for them.
A lot of liberals predicted that too. In 2004, Bin-Laden saw Bush’s re-election as a victory (as did Iran). What’s your point? Anything that happens, the terrorists will find a way to take credit for it in order to make themselves appear more powerful. This shit is not hard to understand.
So go ahead liberals, high five em for a job well done.
We can’t. Our army is stuck in Iraq, so we have no resources to catch them any more.
December 24th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I think that’s unfair given that it’s a well known fact that the Connecticut for Al Qadea candidate promised to caucus with the Republicans.
December 24th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Since the Democrats’ “Blue Wave” came from millions of American votes, does the original poster believe that an electoral majority favors anti-American terrorism?
BTW, for a great look at shameless war-mongering of years past, the “Now & Then” article in today’s Pacific Northwest magazine recalls how Americans opposed to war were demonized by pro-interventionists in 1917. And we all know how well our joining The Great War helped make Europe such a wonderfully peace-loving place for the next few decades.
December 25th, 2006 at 11:09 am
I think you missed the point.
It doesnt matter whether Al Qaeda was responsible or not, what matters is that they now think they are, and that sets what can be a dangerous trend in dealing with them. We should never let them think they have any measurable influence, which is why the Democrats who won need to repudiate Al Qaeda’s message.
If they just carry on, Al Qaeda may decide they have a voice in American Politics, even if it is from behind the curtain.
Thanks, by the way, for the very fair introduction in this article. I do try to take a measured response and I am glad it shows.
December 26th, 2006 at 7:24 am
It doesnt matter whether Al Qaeda was responsible or not, what matters is that they now think they are, and that sets what can be a dangerous trend in dealing with them.
No, it actually doesn’t matter what the people in Al Qaeda think. People in Al Qaeda are nuts. What matters is what the less radical elements of the region think. If people in that region believe that Al Qaeda has influence, then that’s a bad thing. But in the end, it’s the missteps of American leadership that would give them that kind of opening. No one anywhere in the world wants to have crazy radicals who attract the attention of people with very dangerous weapons. But if people become convinced that the folks with the dangerous weapons are irrational and are going to attack them, they’ll be more willing (out of fear) to believe that the radicals are powerful and can protect them.
We should never let them think they have any measurable influence, which is why the Democrats who won need to repudiate Al Qaeda’s message.
What’s more important is for the Democrats to prove to the less radical elements of the Middle East that America can once again be a trustworthy partner in peace. You and I could never imagine seeing America as an “evil” hegemon, but that means very little to someone living in the Middle East, who knows nothing about America, its people, or its history. Their view of us is being shaped by the reality on the ground right now, and that reality (from Iraq to Afghanistan to Lebanon to the Palestinian Territories) is pretty ugly and gives a very distorted view of what American values really are. Democrats need to use their new influence to return American values back to our foreign policy so that the message that the terrorists are sending (basically that America is evil and that the people of the Middle East need to rise up and fight it) doesn’t stick with the less radical members of the region.
If they just carry on, Al Qaeda may decide they have a voice in American Politics, even if it is from behind the curtain.
Al Qaeda will never have a voice in American politics. There’s no political constituency here who believes that America is evil and must be destroyed. That makes no sense. Al Qaeda is playing to be a political constituency in the Middle East, and the way they can succeed at that is if their message about how America (along with Israel) is a dangerous imperial force bent on subjugating the Middle East resonates with the people there. Al Qaeda is not the only group with that message either. Al-Sadr’s army, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Taliban also have that message. The problem is that our current foreign policy plays into that message and keeps making these groups stronger (all of them have made large strides since 2003, especially Hezbollah). It’s not a political problem within the U.S. It’s a problem with how we’re selling ourselves overseas. Flexing our muscles and trying to make people in that region fear us, in order to pacify them, doesn’t work. It just makes people look to the radicals for protection.
Thanks, by the way, for the very fair introduction in this article. I do try to take a measured response and I am glad it shows.
I don’t use the word wingnut lightly. You’re certainly not one. The entire reason I wrote this post was to point out the strange contradiction you entered into by accusing the press of supporting the terrorists and then wondering aloud why there’s such strong hatred of Jews. A significant part of how Hitler was able to do it was by convincing people that the press was undermining the German state and that it was the Jews who secretly controlled it. Today, we hear the same things about the press undermining the country from our own assorted nationalist goofballs, and that distrust is slowly being turned into a distrust of certain elements of our society, even though the press has arguably given Bush and the Republicans the benefit of the doubt more often than not over the past few years.
January 14th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
This is a great blog!
February 28th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Very nice site! Good work.
March 12th, 2007 at 2:35 am
mmm.. nice design, I must say..
March 14th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Du musst ein Fachmann sein - wirklich guter Aufstellungsort, den du hast!
March 16th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
i’am really impressed!!
March 18th, 2007 at 7:12 am
luogo grande:) nessun osservazioni!
March 19th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Chi ha fatto questo? E un buon posto per trovare le informazioni importanti!:)
March 26th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
soloflex vs bowflex…
Days after disability storming ). The meninges are soloflex vs bowflex membranes covering the intelligence and the spinal string. Set aside your medication sole as directed….
April 7th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
interesting site. You can find more information here http://www.vsbot.com
April 7th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
hmmmm interesting http://www.vsbot.com
April 13th, 2007 at 5:09 am
gift lebanon…
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….
April 17th, 2007 at 3:05 am
islamic plays…
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Id take the idiots anyday….
Is there a condition of being abnormally normal? Riyonuk: Nothing is a good as vim….