Posted on 10/30/2004 5:38:01 AM PDT by neverdem
OP-ED COLUMNIST
The nuisance is back!
Remember when John Kerry told Matt Bai of The Times Magazine that he wanted to reduce the terrorists to a nuisance? Kerry vowed to mitigate the problem of terrorism until it became another regrettable and tolerable fact of life, like gambling, organized crime and prostitution.
That was the interview in which he said Sept. 11 "didn't change me much at all." He said it confirmed in him a sense of urgency, "of doing the things we thought we needed to be doing."
Well, the Osama bin Laden we saw last night was not a problem that needs to be mitigated. He was not the leader of a movement that can be reduced to a nuisance.
What we saw last night was revolting. I suspect that more than anything else, he reminded everyone of the moral indignation we all felt on and after Sept. 11.
Here was this monster who killed 3,000 of our fellows showing up on our TV screens, trying to insert himself into our election, trying to lecture us on who is lying and who is telling the truth. Here was this villain traipsing through his own propaganda spiel with copycat Michael Moore rhetoric about George Bush in the schoolroom, and Jeb Bush and the 2000 Florida election.
Here was this deranged killer spreading absurd theories about the American monarchy and threatening to murder more of us unless we do what he says.
One felt all the old emotions. Who does he think he is, and who does he think we are?
One of the crucial issues of this election is, Which candidate fundamentally gets the evil represented by this man? Which of these two guys understands it deep in his gut - not just in his brain or in his policy statements, but who feels it so deep in his soul that it consumes him?
It's quite clear from the polls that most Americans fundamentally think Bush does get this. Last March, Americans preferred Bush over Kerry in fighting terrorism by 60 percent to 33 percent, according to the Gallup Poll. Now, after a furious campaign and months of criticism, that number is unchanged. Bush is untouched on this issue.
Bush's response yesterday to the video was exactly right. He said we would not be intimidated. He tried to take the video out of the realm of crass politics by mentioning Kerry by name and assuring the country that he was sure Kerry agreed with him.
Kerry did say that we are all united in the fight against bin Laden, but he just couldn't help himself. His first instinct was to get political.
On Milwaukee television, he used the video as an occasion to attack the president: "He didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down Osama bin Laden. He outsourced the job." Kerry continued with a little riff from his stump speech, "I am absolutely confident I have the ability to make America safer."
Even in this shocking moment, this echo of Sept. 11, Kerry saw his political opportunities and he took 'em. There's such a thing as being so nakedly ambitious that you offend the people you hope to impress.
But politics has shaped Kerry's approach to this whole issue. Back in December 2001, when bin Laden was apparently hiding in Tora Bora, Kerry supported the strategy of using Afghans to hunt him down. He told Larry King that our strategy "is having its impact, and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will. I think we have been doing this pretty effectively, and we should continue to do it that way."
But then the political wind shifted, and Kerry recalculated. Now Kerry calls the strategy he supported "outsourcing." When we rely on allies everywhere else around the world, that's multilateral cooperation, but when Bush does it in Afghanistan, it's "outsourcing." In Iraq, Kerry supports using local troops to chase insurgents, but in Afghanistan he is in post hoc opposition.
This is why Kerry is not cleaning Bush's clock in this election. Many people are not sure that he gets the fundamental moral confrontation. Many people are not sure he feels it, or feels anything. Since he joined the Senate, what cause has he taken a political risk for? Has he devoted himself selflessly and passionately to any movement larger than himself?
We are revealed by what we hate. When it comes to Osama bin Laden, Kerry hasn't revealed whatever it is that lies inside.
E-mail: dabrooks@nytimes.com
Sir: I knew OSAMA. And you are no OSAMA Bin Laden.
yea..agree..Kerry win would be a disaster for the West indeed..
Agree also..BUT..You have to hear the jerk offs here in NY City ..almost taking Osama's side ..Any bush hater is a friend of theirs. To them , some of Osamas statements are proof of their own SICK theories about Bush..It's INSANE in the NY Metro area..
This is an awsome piece! Forward this around!
possible NC bump.....? (your call)
thanks for that picture of the NY Post cover. I posted it all over my website! www.neoperspectives.com
That piece by David Brooks in teh NYT is awsome.
Interesting observation.
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 its people what is Yaawns 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 countrys 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 CICs 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. Lets 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 in Americas streets once again.
Pray for W and Our Election
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