Bin There, Done That

Another Usama bin Laden tape has surfaced, the first since November.

The recording evidently goes into some detail explaining exactly why it is alright for hard-core religious warriors to make common cause with socialists like Saddam. It basically boils down to that old saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

This allows bin Laden to tell Iraqis to fight the good fight and keep the crusaders from taking Baghdad for as long as possible. Of course, it is impossible to know when the tape was made, even assuming it is the real deal.

Comments

[dude]

Alt hed: Weekend At Binnies.

(bad movies seem to be a theme today)

[Warren]

If you have two enemies. Wouldn't having them go to war with each other be very beneficial to you?

[Johnny Rockets]

That's right... and I've heard speculation that if we hadn't fought the first Gulf War, Osama and Saddam would indeed be fighting each other, not us. Oh well.

[Jim N]

It will be interesting to see how Iraq deals with this. Do they support the recording and further damn themselves in the eyes of the west, or do they disavow Bin Laden's support and further damn themselves in his eyes?

[Omnibus Bill]

I think the tape is a fake.

If it was faked by Al Qaida, then bin Laden is dead, and we've entered the "Elvis Lives" phase of the war on terror. The head of bin Laden, on a pike, at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., would send a clear message to terrorists around the world. Meanwhile, a dead (and uncaptured) bin Laden who lives on in myth and scratchy audiotapes, serves as a mascot and mythical leader of al Qaida, and would be useful to rally the troops from time to time. Best of all, this fake bin Laden could never be captured -- so he would be out there as an always elusive phantom, thwarting the Great Satan's attempts to capture him at every turn. If bin Laden isn't dead yet, he is certainly worth more to his movement dead than alive. Uneasy lies the head that wears the bathtowel...

The other possibility is that Christians In Action or No Such Agency faked the tape. I watched the whole broadcast on Fox yesterday, and when "bin Laden" started encouraging his moslem brothers to go to Iraq and fight from trenches, I nearly fell over. As a Gulf War I vet, I recall my unit using M-1 mounted bulldozer blades to plow under Iraqi trenches that were filled with Iraqi soldiers who failed to surrender at our approach. A couple thousand Al Qaida standing in trenches in the Iraqi desert, prepared to fight to the death against our armor and mech infantry divisions? That's exactly what we want. The boys in the Big Red One and First Cav probably had a good laugh about that one.

[Lefty]

Bill, you hit it right on the head. There's no way those guys want to get out in the open against any modern army.

Looking a little deeper, Powell came up with this tape even before the official OBL Arab newspaper reported it.

[Kevin Carson]

Tom:

As a counterterm to "idiotarian," I propose Axis of Gullibility to include neoconservatives, so-called "neolibertarians," warbloggers, ARI 'droids, and others who cheerlead for the state's endless wars and swallow the manufactured pretexts for those wars.

But you're right, OBL is definitely not PC. One reason he hates the Aussies is they supported the independence of (Christian) East Timor from (Muslim) Indonesia. I wonder if the CIA was working with OBL in the old days in East Timor, as well as Kossovo?

[Lefty]

I smell a rat. Always before, it took the gummint weeks to evaluate and test tapes before they said they were authentic. This time Powell produces the thing before CNN knows about it.

What's up?

[Lefty]

Assuming this thing is legit, Powell/Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld saying this is proof of a link to Saddam is another whopper. Here's a quote from the tape:

"the sincerity of intentions for the fighting should be for the sake of Allah only, no other, and not for the victory of national minorities or for the aid of the infidel regimes in all Arab countries, including Iraq."

Yesterday a Hamas dude said essentially the same thing. The Christians are invading and Islam must resist in every way possible.

This is beautiful. Just fucking beautiful.

[fyodor]

I wonder how Muslims feel about Bin Laden telling them what they can and cannot fight for. Hey bugger, who put YOU in charge??

I'm against a first-strike invasion on Iraq, but I do hope (and largely expect) that when it inevitably comes that the ballyhooed Muslim uprising against all Western Civ turns out to be as much of a dud as it was after we went into Afghanistan.

OTOH, the full effects of either action on Al-Qaeda recruitment may not be felt by the rest of us for many years.

[WolfmanRobichaud Sarah]

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.