I think it's far more insulting that most of our enemies professed a preference for him during the primary and election campaigns.
Posted on 11/23/2008 7:37:00 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
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.
In a video released last week, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the top deputy to Osama bin Laden, denounced Obama as a “house Negro” and compared him unfavorably to “honorable black Americans” such as the late Malcolm X, the black nationalist who practiced Islam.
Zawahiri also showed a still photograph of Obama wearing a yarmulke while visiting Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall last summer. The implication was that Obama had become nothing more than a “tool of the Jews.”
(That’s a switch from the claim of some of Obama’s domestic critics, who fear he’s a secret Muslim who’ll hand the keys of the West Wing to bin Laden.)
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.
However, that’s a more difficult argument to make when the Oval Office is occupied by a black man whose Kenyan grandfather was Muslim and who played with Muslim friends during his childhood years in Indonesia.
“Obama’s election has taken the wind out of al-Qaida’s sails in much of the Islamic world because it demonstrates America’s renewed commitment to multiculturalism, human rights and international law,” former National Security Council staffer Richard Clarke said. “It also proves to many that democracy can work and overcome ethnic, sectarian or racial barriers.”
The president-elect has also promised to restore the nation’s moral authority by returning to its fundamental values, starting with shutting the prison at Guantanamo Bay. That facility was never necessary for national security; the U.S. has prisons on continental soil that can secure dangerous suspects. But the Bush administration wanted an off-shore location where it could employ hideous methods of interrogation and isolation away from the prying eyes of the media and human rights officials.
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.
BS
As usual. Blame it ALL on BUSH. Will that still work in 2011???
Aww man, that “house negro” thing is still getting to the liberals.
But let me guess, she must be referring to Obammie the Commie's oily smooth oratory (if he's reading a teleprompter), and how he'll be able to persuade them to give up violence and murdering and terrorism and live peaceably alongside those who disagree with them?
Because al Qaeda’s greatest nightmare in the last 16 years has been the election of George W. Bush, who actually took the fight to them and kicked their asses across the street.
There's a time to love and a time to hate.
I hate the MSM and their BS commie propaganda machine.
Wow. If we had only known that this was the change al-Quaida was fighting for.
Ditto!
So this twit thinks that the world is really going to pound Al-Qaida because they went un-PC on Obama?
The people that killed scores of Americans are going to be stopped by a backlash of smug from the chattering, coffee drinking, Daily Show watching dunderheads on the left?
Watch out, Osama or they may just get really mad, and hold a protest concert.
Huh? So when terorists are laughing at Obama that means they are scared of Obama? What kind of moonbat logic is that!
Cynthia, you ignorant slut!
Zawahiri is in charge of AQ and he is tryng to antagonize Obama into acting recklessly.
Zawahiri is pushing his buttons
Cynthia Tucker: While it’s a bit irritating to have an atavistic mass murderer presume to dictate appropriate politics for a black American...
but it was not so irritating when it was a white American named George Bush? Racism lives, its face is Cynthia Tucker.
Cynthia Tucker=Another colossal jewel of ignorance who typifies the “Peter Principle” (promotion is a function of incompetence).
This is a good read only (and I mean ONLY) if you want to see laid out before you the entire phony left-wing narrative about 9/11, Al-Qaeda, and the “War on Terror”.
Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Al Qaeda are on the same page; destroy America.
I think it's far more insulting that most of our enemies professed a preference for him during the primary and election campaigns.
Do not fall for this trap.
Of course the terrorists are slamming Obama.
They weant to give him cover with the American public.
The terrorist understand that getting a socialist as President of America is as beneficial to them as all the Socialist running country’s in Europe.
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