MARTIN O'MALLEY: In Dubya's corner: Osama bin Laden? Why did Osama bin Laden deliver his solemn videotaped speech when he did, four days before the American presidential election?
Could it be that he wished to affect the outcome? If so, whom did he want to help? Could it explain why 15 million more voters turned up at the polls in 2004 than in 2000? Much of this increase was due to the galvanized Christian right, to be sure – but 15 million? Maureen Dowd in the New York Times suspects bin Laden's speech helped Bush. She cites "intelligence experts" who say "the terrorists prefer that the belligerent Bush stay in power because he has been a boon to jihadist recruiting, with his disastrous occupation of Iraq and his true believer, us-versus-them, my-Christian-God's-directing-my-foreign-policy vibe." In a not-entirely-tongue-in-cheek column 10 days ago titled "Imagining the mind of a terrorist" I wrote about how a terrorist might view the presidential election. My make-believe terrorist said: "Once we were a dedicated band of dozens, now we're tens of thousands, and more terrorists join us every time George Jr. smacks the rostrum and says, 'America is a safer place because we are fighting in Iraq.' If he keeps saying that he's certain to be re-elected in November and we'll have him for four more years." In a column supporting the Republicans on the website "BushCountry.org," Barbara J. Stock responded to bin Laden's speech by saying he was calling on Americans to vote for Senator John Kerry. "Either the terrorists have been unable to carry out the massive attack that has been promised for three years, or they have decided that an attack might make the American people so angry they would surely re-elect George Bush," Stock writes. "So, bin Laden has taken the only path left to him: release a tape, blame everything on Bush – thus endorsing John Kerry – and hope that the American people are stupid enough to vote the hated Bush out of office." One thing about Osama bin Laden, he is not stupid. He may be evil, dedicated to the collapse of the U.S., but he possesses a diabolically brilliant mind (and has managed to elude capture from the forces of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth). He also possesses a cunning understanding of the American mind. The U.S. appreciates this, as it bankrolled and used Wile E. bin Laden to fight off the big, bad Ruskies in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is a psychological warrior. He knows how Americans think, what frightens and inspires them, and he knows – as few Americans do – the pitfalls of always fighting the last war. He knows the United States never would anticipate or understand how the two towers of the World Trade Center could be brought down to a ghastly rubble by men with box-cutters prepared to die doing it. One of bin Laden's heroes is T.E. Lawrence, the famous "Lawrence of Arabia," who also used cunning and psychological tactics, often going against conventional wisdom, and never resorting to fighting erstwhile wars. Kerry might not have been the best choice as president, but bin Laden was right to assume Bush is better because Kerry might, just might, forge a stronger international alliance against the terrorists. Kerry might also be substantially more likable than Bush. An analysis of bin Laden's speech appeared this week on Radio Free Europe, written by Ron Synovitz in Prague. He quotes Jason Burke, who writes for The Observer. "There clearly has been some influence [on the American election] just by the appearance of bin Laden at such a critical time," Burke says. "That's to be expected. My sense would be, and the polls seem to show, that it helped Bush rather than Kerry." In The Atlantic in October, writer James Fallows deconstructed the presidential debates, zeroing in on Bush's remarks in the first debate that the terrorists hate Americans because Americans are free. My make-believe terrorist also fastened on this article, especially when Fallows – who interviewed many American spies, academics and diplomats for his report – said his sources told him that the they-hate-us-because-of-who-we-are line is dangerous claptrap. "Dangerous because it is so lazily self-justifying and self-deluding: the only thing we could possibly be doing wrong is being so excellent," Fallows says. "Claptrap because it reflects so little knowledge of how Islamic extremism has evolved." Michael Scheurer, a Central Intelligence Agency official, told Fallows: "There are very few people in the world who are going to kill themselves so we can't vote in the Iowa caucuses. But there are a lot of them who are willing to die because we're helping the Israelis, or because we're helping [Russian President Vladimir] Putin against the Chechens, or because we keep oil prices low so Muslims lose money." Dowd of the New York Times says Bush wants to keep hammering at the terrorists in Iraq because if he doesn't they could do their dirty work in North America, probably with nuclear bombs. Exclaims Dowd: "Wow. I feel safer. Do you?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Gold Sponsor - CFHosting.net http://www.cfhosting.net Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:134561 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
