SO HE'S ALIVE (Andrew Sullivan's deeply saddened)

andrewsullivan.com ^ | 10/30/04 | Andrew Sullivan

[Pokey78]

Bummer. I'd hoped he was buried under rubble. What to make of the rant? The parroting of idiotic Michael Moore points was a little pathetic for an alleged spiritual mastermind. And the re-calibration of the rationale for 9/11 - again retroactively talking of Palestinians - was the usual vile opportunism. But why release a tape just before the elections? The obvious impact will be to help Bush. Any reminder of the 9/11 attacks will provoke a national rallying to the commander-in-chief. The deep emotional bond so many of us formed with the president back then is Bush's strongest weapon in this election, and OBL has just revived it. The real October Surprise turned out not to be OBL's capture (sorry, Teresa!) but OBL's resilience. I have a feeling that this will tip the election decisively toward the incumbent. A few hours ago, I thought Kerry was headed for victory. Now I think the opposite. I also have a sinking feeling that that was entirely bin Laden's objective.

[FredZarguna]

Ya know, I gotta be honest. This is the last time I'm ever going to post any reply on an Andrew Sullivan thread. I've really tried very hard to discern what it is exactly that makes anyone care what he says. His observations aren't particularly original, his thinking isn't especially clear, and his writing lately hasn't even been interesting.

I'm glad he feels deeply about things, I really am. But a blogger has to bring a lot more than that to the public forum to keep people coming to his web site. Sorry Andy, but you're boring. I'm only going to live so long, and I just can't keep wasting my mortality on a vacuity like you.

[WOSG]

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is, never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is this, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line."

*** THUNK ***

ROFLMAO!!! .... the other analogy was that Star Trek episode where the VGer machine thought Kirk was God or something and then Kirk told him he made a mistake and the machine started melting down ... LOL.

Let's not overthink this:

- Bin Laden still around - BAD

- Bin Laden torments us with a useless message - BAD

- Bin Laden fails to send bombs our way - GOOD - HE SENT BOMBS TO MADRID AND TO JAKARTA, IT MUST MEAN WE ARE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT.

- We have a President who can deal with him - BUSH - GOOD

- BUSH IS THE MAN TO SUPPORT

[jscd3]

Now I must leave to continue building up my immunity to iocaine powder.

Brilliant, and a Princess Bride bump...

[MNJohnnie]

It's called a net gain. While the Bush Administration will kill more terrorists, it will also radicalize more terrorists, and actually create some sympathy in the world for UBL and his crew


How many Nazis did killing Nazis during WW 2 create?

How many Samurai did Killing Japanese in WW 2 make?

How many North Korea's were "radicalized" by the Korean war?

Sorry, but this "net gain" is just the vapid platitudes of the Hysteric Left. There is NO data to support this nonsense. The Hysteric Left likes to throw out this "net gain" mytholody to justify their posture of appeasement and isolationism.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Why would anyone honestly believe that Bin Laden wants Bush to win?

Sullivan has some blind spots.

[MNJohnnie]

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. - Bertrand Russell


No the whole problem is people who justify moral cowardice and inaction as "doubts". Rather then do the hard messy work of confronting an evil, they would rather sit around as posture as morally superiors because they see evil and are unwilling to do ANYTING at all to stop it.

[Rome2000]

Old tiny pecker doesn't have a clue that he just won the election for Bush.

Could these camel jockeys possibly be that clueless as to do something as asinine as this?

Yes.

It is apparent that the ragheads are simply uncivilized savage subhumans that have been allowed to amass way more wealth than they are equipped to handle.

Hey Mohammed, what do we do with all of this video equipment?

They will soon feel the wrath of the USA in a way that the Japs and the Hun did.

[Shermy]

"Moroccans? I don't see anything proving there's been more or less recruiting before or after 9/11."

Spaniards probably think otherwise.

They don't. For example, terrorism judge Garzon's statements, recent editorials in Spain regarding the latest plots which had nothing to do with what America does in Iraq, etc. AS for the "number" I should clarify if any increase occured it had to do with Iraq. Even the leftist govt. in Spain has dropped that line. Can you tell us where you get your data on the sign-up dates for terrorists? Is it like going to their home page on FR? You seem to know when they all joined up.

I haven't noticed any body say there's been any particular surge in increase from the Arab world at all. Naturally the local Sunnis, ie, Saddam's privileged class and henchmen, have instigated terror mostly in the Sunni triangle, but that's local and not due to Osama bin Laden particularly. As for the foreign terrorists there they are not inspired so much by Osama but by neighboring nations using them as cover for there own particular interests. I learn this in part from Iraqi blogs and their govt's statements - wholly unreported in the MSM who prefer a storyline that it's a general and wholly genuine reaction to Bush. Heck, before the war Osama was saying it was our sanctions that killed 1,000,000 Iraqi babies as a slogan for recruitment. If we had pulled out altogether, then we get blamed for a genocide of Kurds by Saddam's returning forces into the autonomous zones. It was a no-win situation.

[aculeus]

I once sent Sullivan a small contribution ... by check.

The check was cashed but I received not even a machine-generated email "thanks".

He's no longer bookmarked.

[MNJohnnie]

Those two anomalies and the fact that it is conceivably useful to both sides in the U.S. election make me quite suspicious that perhaps this "authentication" is a bit more cursory than might be desired. Time will tell.


Hmmm, since it was released via Al Jaziera, I don't think there was ANY "authentication" process. Al Jaziera got the tape and ran it. This comes from a NON US Source. So the attempt to spin this as a "Govt plot" is nonsense. Sounds to me like you are trying to rationalize it away rather then accepting the reality.

[Teacher317]

Why would anyone honestly believe that Bin Laden wants Bush to win?

Hmm... With Kerry constantly capitulating, it might put a dent in the rate of recruiting? It's tougher to look like a martyr when you're slaughtering those who are trying to cave in as fast as a Frenchman? With Kerry as President, the nation (that is, the MSM) will no longer be aligned with them against the White House? That's all I got. Crummy reasons, but maybe they're good enough for OBL. Let's hope he's that stupid.

Oh! Wait! I forgot the biggie!!

OBL doesn't want to ruin his Hillary '08 t-shirt production business!

[Billthedrill]

I'm suggesting that everyone is jumping on this tape before it's convincingly proven to be authentic, due to the immediacy of the election. That is undoubtedly what the releasers of the tape intended.

That is a "rationalization" precisely how?

[No Blue States]

[Go_Raiders]

Intriguing point. I am wondering if Bin Laden fancies himself to be a modern Anti-Christ.

I guess we'll soon see if he has the ability to conquer death, or does his escape from Tora Bora count?

[weegee]

Heck, I find Mohammed to be an AntiChrist figure if not THE AntiChrist. Millions (billions?) have been swayed down a false path.

Mohammed wrote the Koran. He says it came to him from God. The Christian text is unchanged from the earliest elements; Mohammed claimed that HIS was the TRUE word and that man had corrupted the text. Mohammed was a liar (and a murderer and a pedophile).

People are free to worship Mohammed (and muslims do, they put prayers on his name and do not permit him to be depicted) but they are not permitted to kill for him.

[Alberta's Child]

While nobody knows exactly what Kerry's response to the terror threat might be, I can assure you that this is true: If John Kerry were president and he thought he could establish his legacy and guarantee his re-election by taking a strong stand against Islam, he is calculating and nihilistic enough to lay waste to large swaths of the Middle East to accomplish his goal.

Just look around at the political landscape today and think of all the complaints you hear from leftists about the Patriot Act, the shortage of flu vaccines, etc. Then go back and try to remember if you heard even a peep from any of these people after the Clinton administration incinerated those 88 Branch Davidians in Texas.

Clinton and Bush offer a good point of contrast. If you were Osama bin Laden, who would you fear more -- the President who came at you with a vengeance after you killed 3,000 Americans or the one who tried to kill you just to get his impeachment hearings off the front page of the newspaper?

[LibertarianInExile]

You're trying to trick him. It won't work.

[Alberta's Child]

This is quite a strange story. As someone else has pointed out on another thread today, the biggest surprise is not that OBL is alive and well, but that he's been able to produce a remarkably well-made, professional-looking video message like this.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Yep, and so close to the election.

[LibertarianInExile]

"Can you tell us where you get your data on the sign-up dates for terrorists? Is it like going to their home page on FR? You seem to know when they all joined up."

Pot, meet kettle. The only thing we know for sure about terrorist numbers is that more of them are dead, as far as raw numbers go. A percentage? Well, we'd have to know the total number of terrorists out there, wouldn't we?

Y'all ought to just agree to disagree on this fact. You have doctrinal differences here that aren't going to be solved on this issue anyway. It comes down to the idea that you, lug, believe the Bush Iraqi intervention has created terrorists.

I think most of us disagree. In fact, I think Iraqis are getting sick of the terrorists in their midst. But as I haven't been to Iraq recently, all I can read is the newspaper and online accounts. The MSM accounts disagree with me. The online accounts agree with me. I'll trust the latter, I think.