Kristol and Hayes: Politicizing The Bin Laden Tape

The Kerry campaign's extraordinary response to the newly released tape from al Qaeda's leader.

IN THEIR FORMAL STATEMENTS reacting to the new videotape from Osama bin Laden, both President Bush and John Kerry were statesmanlike. Each man called for Americans to unite against terror and vowed to defeat bin Laden and al Qaeda.

The Bush campaign wisely avoided going political. But the Kerry campaign--in comments from a top adviser and the candidate himself--did not.

Kerry gave what appear to be his first extemporaneous comments about the tape in a previously scheduled satellite interview with Kathy Mykleby, a veteran anchor with WISN TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"I find myself in the unexpected position of giving you breaking news at this moment because I don't know if you're aware of the Al-Jazeera tape that has just aired with Osama bin Laden admitting to the 9-11 attacks for the first time. What is your reaction?" Mykleby asked.

"My reaction," said Kerry, "is that all of us in this country are completely united. Democrat, Republican--there's no such thing. There's just Americans, and we are united in hunting down and capturing or killing those who conducted behind that raid. We always knew it was Osama bin Laden."

Mykleby followed up: "What do you think impact of this videotape might have on our election?"

"I don't think any," Kerry answered. "I think Americans understand we are living in a dangerous age." So far, so good.

But Kerry finally couldn't resist politicizing the tape: "I am prepared to wage a more effective war on terror than George Bush," he added.

Kerry's comment was unfortunate, and mild compared to those made later in the day by his senior foreign policy adviser, Richard Holbrooke. In an appearance on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports, Holbrooke, who has rejected the notion that we are in a "war on terror," said this:

"The U.S. is determined to defeat al Qaeda and its allies and the war against their use of terrorist tactics."

Holbrooke then went on the attack. "The tape shows that he's still around. We should have captured him and we haven't. And the other thing it shows, illustrates a key point which is that Senator Kerry in his relentless pursuit of terrorism is going to be very aggressive. The tape doesn't show that but Senator Kerry's comments continually--his experience shows that Osama bin Laden will draw no comfort from a Kerry presidency."

When Blitzer pointed out that President Bush scores better in all of the recent polling questions on who would handle the war on terror, Holbrooke offered a brief word of praise, and then resumed his attack. "I think that to the extent that that polling data is correct, it stems from President Bush's very effective activities right after 9/11. But the point here about what we've just seen [the bin Laden tape] is that Senator Kerry has said repeatedly that we should've closed the door on bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains on the Afghan/Pakistan border in December '01 and January 2002. And had we done so--had we not subcontracted the war against al Qaeda to the warlords in the area, many of whom had been in cahoots with bin Laden until a few weeks earlier, we might have captured him. Now, he is able to send out this vicious threat through al Jazeera and everyone else in the world."

Blitzer: "Are you concerned though that when Americans see this videotape--it'll be all over the news media as you can imagine, not only today but in the days to come--they will be reminded of what happened on 9/11 and they'll say, 'You know what, I'd better vote for Bush because he's tougher in dealing with al Qaeda than Kerry.'"

Said Holbrooke: "I don't think so. I think it also raises a much deeper question: How can this grotesque mass murderer be out there on worldwide television more than three years after 9/11?"

Holbrooke punctuated the next sentence with exasperated pauses between his words. "Why--haven't--we--captured--him--if the Bush administration was going to be so effective in the war on terror? President Bush said in the debates that he's rolled up 75 percent of al Qaeda. Well, it sure doesn't sound like it now."

When Blitzer pointed out that Bush claimed to have captured or killed 75 percent of "al Qaeda leadership," Holbrooke scoffed. "He did not say 'leadership' at all. And how does he know? And as Secretary Rumsfeld himself said in that leaked memo, 'Aren't we creating more terrorists than we're killing?'"

Here, by way of contrast, was President Bush's reaction: "Let me make this very clear," Bush said in Toledo, Ohio. "Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country. I'm sure Senator Kerry agrees with this."

Is there any development in the war on terror, however grave, that the Kerry campaign won't try to exploit for partisan advantage?

Osama finally comes out from his cave Outer Mongolia with his political endorsement. That boring speech had so many Michael Mooreon quotes, he must be getting the Old York Times delivered?? Yawn said that he had world leaders who were hoping that he would become President and now we know who he was talking about. Since he could have easily captured this murderer, he must have been in constant communication. After all, Yaawn Cut & Run Kerry is the most brilliant Armchair General and Monday Morning QB in the Country. Komrade Kerry knows everything about everything, just ask him a veritable Cliff Claven.

The first moment that Yaawn hears about Osama bin Hidin threatening the United States election and it’s people what is Yaawn’s response? Does he state we are unified in defeating this animal? No, he piles on the military, America and the President to score the cheapest of political points. This fits him like a T, he hates the military, America and the President with every vote he has cast or speech given. In unscripted moments, the true John Kerry comes out, the one we saw in 1971, he says that the military failed to catch Osama. Fact is, if Kerry, Clinton or Gore were presidents we would not have even been in Afghanistan. They all said that it was going to be another Vietnam and none of them had the spine to attack a sovereign country. So Osama would still be in his compounds outside of Kabul training terrorists for the next American attack.

We have the country’s most vile enemy attacking our President and our people and what is the first thing out of his mouth. “I would have captured or killed Osama!” What a piece of garbage to make an empty statement when this terrorist is threatening our women and children. First, track records for Rat CIC’s in war is very weak, but assuming he would have let the dogs loose and he ever got to the point our troops got to in Tora Bora, how you going to smoke him out? This is the most inaccessible land in the world. 20,000 foot mountains in the roadless areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan, tell us how YOU would catch him Yaawn??

Comrade Kerry is always the first to criticize our troops, but he never tells us exactly what he can do better. Our main mistake in Tora Bora was we became too sensitive to the terrorists and gave them a cease fire to surrender which is when they escaped. That is what Comrade Kerry would do in Iraq and is why Osama endorsed him. He is tired of raising goats in Outer Mongolia. He wants back in the game like when BJ clinton was treating him like a “nuisance” and is pining for a Kerry return to those days.

He misses the days when he could blow up or murder Americans at will and we would treat it like a police action. Threaten to hunt them down and kill them anywhere, any time yada, yada, yada and then wait for the next attack. He misses the days when the military option was not an option and our military was a meals-on-wheels brigade and no threat to Osama. Yeah, he is hoping and praying that Comrade Kerry will get elected and bring back the good ol days for terrorism when American blood flowed freely in the streets.

George W Bush changed all that! He told the military to sick-um and they did. Now terrorists are either dead or hiding for fear of their lives. Osama has not been able to attack this country once and is losing dozens of men a day. He knows that after GW is elected he is a dead man. He knows that the military is the finest and brightest military in the history of the world. He knows that GW will let the military adapt and destroy with an efficiency that he cannot match. He knows that his only chance of survival now is to get Yaawn elected. He knows that if President Bush is elected he will end up on the Ash Heap of History. Let’s pray America figures out what Osama has.

So in desperation he gives a rambling, long winded monotone speech that was laced heavily with attacks on the President and our military with wild claims from Michael Moore to fire-up his base. Pretty much a Yaawn Cut & Run stump speech who is now his number one fan so Blood will run once again in America’s streets.

Pray for W and Our Election

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