Obama’s win a nightmare for al-Qaida

[babylonsister]

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/tucker/stories/2008/11/23/tucked_1123.html

Obama’s win a nightmare for al-Qaida

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Just when it seemed the insults hurled at Barack Obama had reached the apex of absurdity, al-Qaida weighs in with a bit of retro name-calling of its own.

CYNTHIA TUCKER


While it’s a bit irritating to have an atavistic mass murderer presume to dictate appropriate politics for a black American, Zawahiri’s diatribe is good news. In fact, it may be the best news we’ve gotten in the struggle against al-Qaida since the so-called Sunni awakening in Iraq. Zawahiri and his fellow jihadists are clearly worried both about the symbolic power of an Obama presidency and about the smarter strategy against terrorism that Obama has laid out.


The hamfisted tactics favored by George W. Bush, including his ill-fated invasion of Iraq, were a gift to al-Qaida and its recruiting efforts. They allowed bin Laden and Zawahiri to paint the U.S. government as an imperial power bent on a 21st-century crusade against Islam.

snip//

We Americans believe ourselves to be a force for good in the world, but the Bush administration’s wholesale detentions and widespread use of torture badly tarnished our reputation. That matters in the fight against jihadists, who win converts by convincing alienated young Muslim men (and, increasingly, women) that America is their enemy. The toppling of Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with Sept. 11; the abuses at Abu Ghraib; the quest for permanent bases in Iraq — all those gave credence to al-Qaida’s claims.

Obama is far from naive about the threat represented by Islamist terrorists. The president-elect has promised to step up efforts to hunt down bin Laden and his Taliban sympathizers, the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. He also understands that we’ve wasted several years — not to mention billions in resources and the nation’s good name — in a diversion from that war.

During the campaign, several of John McCain’s supporters — including the recently forgiven Joe Lieberman — tried to argue that an Obama win would be a victory for terrorists. The neocons hyperventilated over Obama’s promise to draw down troops from Iraq, to talk to our enemies, to restore the rule of law. Even Obama’s correct pronunciation of Pakistan (Pah-kis-tahn) became something to snicker about, as if it were a sign of weakness.

Al-Qaida’s cheap taunts, on the other hand, suggest its minions see something to fear in the new president. They know he’ll fight both the propaganda war and the shooting war a lot better than Bush ever did.

[Catshrink]

1. I've wondered why Zawahiri released the tape and not OBL.

Maybe OBL is in fact dead or too sick to make a tape. :shrug:

Or maybe the CIA wouldn't let him? :tinfoilhat:

[Bobbieo]

5. I believe bin Laden has been dead for some time now. - which is a good thing

but not necessarily relevant to Zawahiri's statements.

[Happyhippychick]

2. I love being right. This is exactly what I argued when Obama was in the primary, that the biggest

threat to Al Qaeda is somebody who will diffuse them, not fight with them.

[Why Syzygy]

3. I don't believe the Taliban is defeatable.

They are going to have to be dealt with as a legitimate entity. They only want to control their own country, and in fact, are the ones who are running the law in Afghanistan. They have relaxed some of their Sharia requirements in order to provide more widespread security. I'm not singing their praises, but it IS naive' to believe this group can be done away with.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. I say bring them to Texas and wine and dine them, take them on

a shopping spree.... oh wait, already did that. Nevermind.

[DavidMS]

6. They can be militarialy broken...

just not by using direct military force. Think of it as a police action and with plenty of negation with the more moderate Taliban factions and eventually bringing them into the political process. Once that happens it goes from the need for a 600,000 pairs of boots occupation to the need for slow gradual secularization and education program taking some 60 to 90 years. It will take a long time, but a good first step is to cut off the Taliban's funds by cutting our oil consumption to starve the Saudis of funds to export Whabidism.

[Why Syzygy]

7. This Rolling Stone article

is very enlightening.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23612315/how_we_lost_the_war_we_won
It has been seven years since the United States invaded Afghanistan in the wake of September 11th. The military victory over the Taliban was swift, and the Bush administration soon turned its attention to rebuilding schools and roads and setting up a new government under President Hamid Karzai. By May 2003, only 18 months after the beginning of the war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld all but declared victory in Afghanistan. "We are at a point where we clearly have moved from major combat activity to a period of stability and stabilization and reconstruction," Rumsfeld announced during a visit to Kabul. The security situation in Afghanistan, in his view, was better than it had been for 25 years.

But even as Rumsfeld spoke, the Taliban were beginning their reconquest of Afghanistan. The Pentagon, already focused on invading Iraq, assumed that the Afghan militias it had bought with American money would be enough to secure the country. Instead, the militias proved far more interested in extorting bribes and seizing land than pursuing the hardened Taliban veterans who had taken refuge across the border in Pakistan. The parliamentary elections in 2005 returned power to the warlords who had terrorized the countryside before the Taliban imposed order. "The American intervention issued a blank check to these guys," says a senior aid official in Kabul. "They threw money, weapons, vehicles at them. But the warlords never abandoned their bad habits — they're abusing people and filling their pockets.

By contrast, aid for rebuilding schools and clinics has been paltry. In the critical first two years after the invasion, international assistance amounted to only $57 per citizen — compared with $679 in Bosnia. As U.S. contractors botched reconstruction jobs and fed corruption, little of the money intended to rebuild Afghanistan reached those in need. Even worse, the sudden infusion of international aid drove up real estate and food prices, increasing poverty and fueling widespread resentment.

[mwei924]

8. Not to mention, the entire world (including the middle east) LOVES Obama.

They'll have a much harder time getting more people to hate Obama and want to destroy America..