Dub's Surge Exactly What Osama bin Laden Wants...
I've felt this for a long time...Osama is playing our Georgie for a fool...and he doesn't even know it because for one he doesn't read...the other thing...he is incompetent. This from AlterNet...
Lost in the "surge" debate is the unfortunate reality that escalation in Iraq, just like the invasion itself, plays into al-Qaida's ultimate strategy to eliminate America. As revealed in a 2005 strategy document, al-Qaida hopes to repeat Osama bin Laden's victory over the Soviet empire in Afghanistan by eliminating the chief obstacle in the way of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. The goal is not, as Bush administration and right-wing pundits proclaim, to conquer or directly destroy America. Osama bin Laden wants to provoke the United States into destroying itself.
According to Atwan's analysis of al-Qaida's "20-year plan," the organization aimed to bring about the fall of the American empire by first provoking -- with the September 11 attacks -- Washington into irrationally invading Muslim lands in pursuit of revenge. Al-Qaida's grand strategists calculated that the invasion would propel the umma, the Muslim community, into joining the jihad. Following the fall of the secular socialist Hussein regime, Iraq has indeed become a training ground for limitless waves of foreign jihadis.
In this context, George W. Bush was a great boon to their efforts. Not only did he invade Iraq, which did not have a thing to do with 9/11, but he did almost everything possible to isolate America from its allies. How familiar does all this sound? Too familiar I'm afraid.
Bush's "surge" only throws more meat to the jackals, who gain strength and popularity with each web-broadcasted beheading or roadside bomb explosion. Like Afghanistan, Iraq gives would-be jihadis watching the conflict from their computer screens the hope of destroying the military might of the West. The jihadis also hope to expand the conflict to create what Atwan calls a "Triangle of Horror" connecting Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria.
All of this time, al-Qaida's master strategists have manipulated Bush like a marionette. Instead of cutting his losses and withdrawing from Iraq -- or critically re-examining the failures of the American intervention in Afghanistan -- Bush continues blindly to throw more resources into battle, believing that the United States simply lacks "a will to win."
Americans have little knowledge about Mideast culture or international politics but feel strongly that they have been misled and betrayed by their superiors. This was true as well in Vietnam. Yet the horrors of both wars will be paltry in comparison to the horrors unleashed if we escalate in Iraq and attack Iran. The only voices aside from Bush's calling to "bring it on" are those from al-Qaida itself. It's hard to sit back and watch this happen all over again...but on a larger scale because the cost of doing things now is so much more. And the German magazine Der Spiegel reports that, by the end of 2007, America will have spent $670 billion fighting the "war on terror," more than Washington spent on the Vietnam War or the first two years of World War II. It feels good to get up in the morning and know that we are spending a gazillion more dollars today and we will again tommorrow too...and everyday after that as long as this nonsense lasts. This aint' funny stuff. AlterNet
Lost in the "surge" debate is the unfortunate reality that escalation in Iraq, just like the invasion itself, plays into al-Qaida's ultimate strategy to eliminate America. As revealed in a 2005 strategy document, al-Qaida hopes to repeat Osama bin Laden's victory over the Soviet empire in Afghanistan by eliminating the chief obstacle in the way of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. The goal is not, as Bush administration and right-wing pundits proclaim, to conquer or directly destroy America. Osama bin Laden wants to provoke the United States into destroying itself.
According to Atwan's analysis of al-Qaida's "20-year plan," the organization aimed to bring about the fall of the American empire by first provoking -- with the September 11 attacks -- Washington into irrationally invading Muslim lands in pursuit of revenge. Al-Qaida's grand strategists calculated that the invasion would propel the umma, the Muslim community, into joining the jihad. Following the fall of the secular socialist Hussein regime, Iraq has indeed become a training ground for limitless waves of foreign jihadis.
In this context, George W. Bush was a great boon to their efforts. Not only did he invade Iraq, which did not have a thing to do with 9/11, but he did almost everything possible to isolate America from its allies. How familiar does all this sound? Too familiar I'm afraid.
Bush's "surge" only throws more meat to the jackals, who gain strength and popularity with each web-broadcasted beheading or roadside bomb explosion. Like Afghanistan, Iraq gives would-be jihadis watching the conflict from their computer screens the hope of destroying the military might of the West. The jihadis also hope to expand the conflict to create what Atwan calls a "Triangle of Horror" connecting Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria.
All of this time, al-Qaida's master strategists have manipulated Bush like a marionette. Instead of cutting his losses and withdrawing from Iraq -- or critically re-examining the failures of the American intervention in Afghanistan -- Bush continues blindly to throw more resources into battle, believing that the United States simply lacks "a will to win."
Americans have little knowledge about Mideast culture or international politics but feel strongly that they have been misled and betrayed by their superiors. This was true as well in Vietnam. Yet the horrors of both wars will be paltry in comparison to the horrors unleashed if we escalate in Iraq and attack Iran. The only voices aside from Bush's calling to "bring it on" are those from al-Qaida itself. It's hard to sit back and watch this happen all over again...but on a larger scale because the cost of doing things now is so much more. And the German magazine Der Spiegel reports that, by the end of 2007, America will have spent $670 billion fighting the "war on terror," more than Washington spent on the Vietnam War or the first two years of World War II. It feels good to get up in the morning and know that we are spending a gazillion more dollars today and we will again tommorrow too...and everyday after that as long as this nonsense lasts. This aint' funny stuff. AlterNet
I rant about this all the time. We are bankrupting our Nation. Can't people see it?!
Posted by
Frederick |
7:07 AM
We have bought into the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) ever since we took on Russia in the Cold WAR.
Through a combination of public apathy and threats by the MIC we have let the SYSTEM get too large. It is now a SYSTEMIC problem and the SYSTEM is out of control.
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
There is no conspiracy. The SYSTEM has gotten so big that those who make it up and run it day to day in industry and government simply are perpetuating their existance. The politicians rely on them for details and recommendations because they cannot possibly grasp the nuances of the environment and the BIG SYSTEM.
So, the system has to go bust and then be re-scaled, fixed and re-designed to run efficiently and prudently, just like any other big machine that runs poorly or becomes obsolete or dangerous.
This situation will right itself through trauma. I see a government ENRON on the horizon, with an associated house cleaning.
For more details see
http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/odyssey-of-armaments.html
Posted by
RoseCovered Glasses |
8:37 AM
Sumo, that last cartoon is priceless. It makes me understand Bush's pitiful whim that Iraq should be more grateful for HIS bungling invasion.
Posted by
Anonymous |
10:03 AM
It's very easy to agree with the sentiments in this post. However, there is a point that gets over emphazised, the Osama and boys do not have to be exceptionally gifted strategists when the opponet is such low quality thinker and statesman as Dubya. Hell, even if there were no 9/11 or terrorism, he would be able to screw things up anyway. Such is this smirking, babbling, fumbling idiot.
Posted by
Anonymous |
2:58 PM
Pekka, you are right. He would find things to screw up anyway, because that is his nature. He is dreadfully insecure and anxiety-ridden, constantly feeling the need to prove himself... The behaviors in which he engages are ways for him to soothe some of the anxiety. He will shy away from anything that involves more than black-and-white thinking because it causes him... too much anxiety. I think it's a vicious circle with him, and I hope it won't all come to a head before his term expires! ugh... I think the man is mentally unfit to be president, and after reading "Bush On The Couch", it seems obvious when one looks at his behaviors in terms of his deficiencies in thinking.
Frederick, I think the bankrupting of our nation is purposeful. There is no other way to roll back the New Deal, which is what these buttholes are trying to do. If the MIC can be fed while the New Deal is destroyed, so much the better?
America provoked the USSR into destroying itself, and if that's what Al Qaeda wants the US to do, their strategy appears to be working so far. Bush won't learn from history, and he will keep taking the Al Qaeda bait because he knows no other way to deal with such things. His mental kit is too limited. He will keep beating the same dead horse; he will try using some different sticks, or he will paint the same old stick a different color... but the horse will still be dead, regardless.
RCG, excellent comments, and good blog!
Sumo, the cartoons you chose are excellent as usual! And thanks for the Alternet article, I believe it is true.
Posted by
Snave |
11:38 AM
Snave...thanks for summing up what I should have already told the commenters. Pekka was sooo right about his low brow...heh heh.
Posted by
sumo |
12:08 PM