Riding in on a high horse
George Bush just finished his press conference discussing his views of “progress and sacrifices” made over the past 5 years in Iraq.
Among other statements Bush attempted to counter, was an older statement from Osama bin Laden in December 2001. Bin Laden suggested that, “when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.”
Bush suggested that when the Arab world saw the progress and prosperity of Iraq they would eventually come to see America as the strong horse and stand united behind it.
While the Bush administration has continually changed the reasons for why the military invaded Iraq and what metrics can be used to measure “prosperity and progress” that specific analysis is for another post.
Rather, another question that can be asked is why Bush was willing to listen and quote some of what Bin Laden has previously said and not others.
For instance, prior to the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa, bin Laden states in his second fatwa,
For over seven years now the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors and turning its bases in the peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.
The official 9/11 commission reported this kind of reasoning as one of many motivating factors behind the subsequent hijackings and attacks. Guiliani and the entire neoconservative establishment blew a gasket when Ron Paul and others mention this as evidence for blowback.
So the question now is, by what standard does Bush use in quoting certain passages? Why are some statements from Bin Laden considered legitimate and others ignored?
In addition, Bush uttered at least one non sequitur during the press conference. He suggested that since there haven’t been any further attacks, his homeland security strategy has obviously worked.
However, this fallacious reasoning is along the lines of the old story of the man banging a drum in Central Park. When questioned as to why he is banging on a drum the man replies “it is to keep the bears and tigers away.” And because neither carnivore was in sight, his plan obviously works. (Similar to the Bear Patrol episode in The Simpsons)
Be sure to also check out “The Fear Factory” from the latest copy of Rolling Stone magazine.
Eric
March 19th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Bush is like the Energizer bunny – albeit one armed to the teeth: He just keeps going and going and going. There’s been a lot of “Bush fatigue” out there in recent months – a lot of Americans are waiting for him to just go away. Then he pops up with this nonsense and you remember that Jan 2009 is still a long way’s off.
If anyone’s interested in looking beyond the corporate media’s dishonest, misleading reportage regarding the surge’s effectiveness, check out Patrick Cockburn’s interview on NPR’s Fresh Air (yeah, it’s NPR but once in a while they get it right): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19202062
Eric
http://www.changeany1thing.com
FloridaFrank
March 19th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Why no attacks on US soil?
Hmmm is Bush a genius?
The answer is simple — Bin Laden has not attacked, because he is winning, and another attack would turn world sympathy back to the US.
We are killing ourselves. Bin Laden just has to sit back and watch the US strangle itself.
Old proverb — never distract your enemy when he is making a mistake.
And, we are making a huge mistake in Iraq.
Bush is a joke (or maybe nightmare is a better word).
andy
March 19th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Perhaps they haven’t attacked again because they’re not that big of a threat ?.
masmanz
March 19th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
The whole of alQaeda is just two men sitting somewhere in a mountain cave, all they can do is to issue a tape every few month to help Bush and co the best they can. The rest of their work is done by Bush, the neocons, and their supporters.
the legendary Bill
March 19th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
9-11 was just a new Pearl Harbor ( read Day of Deceit by Thomas Fleming ) and a Reichstag fire all rolled into one..
Game Cat
March 19th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I do think that technically Mr Laden cannot issue a “Fatwa” as he is not widely consider a scholar of Islamic Law. Or is he?
DJ
March 20th, 2008 at 3:43 am
People tend to forget that eight years had lapsed between the first attack on the World Trade Center and the second fatal one. These guys tend to bide their time until it’s ripe, thoroughly planned, and funded. Just because nothing major has occured within the US since 9/11 doesn’t mean a damn thing regarding the ‘effectiveness’ of Bush’s security strategy…if there is a strategy.
Brad
March 20th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Show how you feel. I have an anti-Iraq war sticker and some other right leaning stickers. http://www.goodoleboybumperstickers.com
8Ball
March 20th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
US Über Alles! That is all you need to know to understand the basis of American foreign policy. The aged, paranoid freaks, who run our so-called government are so afraid of any other culture or faction that poses a threat to their global dominance that they are willing to ruin the country and the world in order to prevent whoever or whatever from cutting into their “action”.
Regardless, they have set the country on a course that will be hard if not impossible to reverse. The handwriting is on the wall and it is just a matter of time and choice as to whether we go out kicking & screaming or with a bump & whimper… My bet is that the idiot-in-chief, whoever it may be, will choose door #1.
America’s “leaders” have no interest in “getting along” with the rest of the world on a quid pro quo basis, their only desire is to dominate and to exploit whoever and whatever. Understand this and you will understand US foreign policy. Try to imagine what things would be like if Bush had decided (as if he actually “decides” anything!) to spend $3T on America instead of pissing it into the sands of Iraq, imagine…
Glendon Wayne
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Color code the empire red
Full spectrum stupidity is just ahead
Don’t threat about pi
or what’s left of the pie
Read them ”My Pet Goat’ instead
Andy
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
George Bush. Making Americans safe. One unneccesarry war at a time.
Kenneth
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
The aged, paranoid freaks, who run our so-called government are so afraid of any other culture or faction that poses a threat to their global dominance that they are willing to ruin the country and the world in order to prevent whoever or whatever from cutting into their “action”.
Thereby expediting the process whereby competing imperialist powers like China and the EU gain ascendancy and ensuring their own decline. The irony- it kills, it kills!
george in Toronto
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 am
Did you all this on Newsweek ? Seems the media is turning the corner towards truth telling but as always at the end of the column and Bush regime
“Perhaps most revealing of all was a tape of Saddam’s conversations with his ministers after the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993—a plot linked to a group of Islamic radicals, one of whom, Abdul Rahman Yasin, was an Iraqi-American who fled to Baghdad after the attack. For years Bush administration officials like Cheney and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz charged that Iraq had given “sanctuary” to Yasin, suggesting that the regime may have been complicit in the 1993 bombing. But the newly discovered tape shows that Saddam and his ministers were puzzled by the bombing and wondered whether the “Zionists” or U.S. intelligence were secretly behind it. They also were deeply suspicious of Yasin, whom the Iraqis had in custody and were interrogating. Yasin, Saddam says on the tape, is “too organized in what he is saying and is playing games.” The Pentagon researcher said the exchange shows how “paranoid and suspicious” the Iraqis were about their adversaries. They may not have been alone.
8Ball
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:33 am
This fellow had Bush figured out a long time ago. And this fellow shares his experiences in working with the US government during the run-up to operation “Iraqi Freedom”.
If you want irony, the essence of the Bush presidency and US foreign policy could be distilled from that one name.
A New England preppie relocates to Texas (excepting a brief period during the Vietnam war)and pretends to be a cowboy. He proceeds to the governorship and then moves on to the the US Presidency. His father’s PR machine and friends in the media are largely responsible for most of this. Americans should have paid attention to that Canadian fellow…
8Ball
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:41 am
correction: The first “fellow” was actually a woman… Francoise Ducros. A woman’s intuition made the correct call.
Jon
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Al Qaeda fights for the Caliphate it might be near impossible for them to get it but that is why they fight. Al Qaeda will keep fighting as long as the US has diplomatic and trade relations and votes at the UN in ways that Al Qaeda doesn’t approve of.
Appeasement didn’t work in world war II and it won’t work with Al Qaeda.
Jon
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Al Qaeda fights for the Caliphate it might be near impossible for them to get it but that is why they fight. Al Qaeda will keep fighting as long as the US has diplomatic and trade relations with nations Al Qaeda doesn’t approve and votes at the UN in ways that Al Qaeda doesn’t approve of.
Appeasement didn’t work in world war II and it won’t work with Al Qaeda
Jennifer in Florida
October 29th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I think you can appreciate certain aspects of persons – even those with whom you disagree. The position of “this person is all things evil and wrong” simply doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. So the idea that he agrees with some of the things stated – is only natural and logical in my opinion.