You mean this one?
Posted on 09/27/2001 6:56:04 AM PDT by Tai_Chung
The terrorist atrocities inflicted on the US have give rise to a new rumor mill that grinds out stories that range from the banal to the bizarre. But a story out of the Middle East has more credibility than most, particularly in certain quarters. Some cooler and more intelligent heads in the Arab world have concluded that Bush has outfoxed the fanatical bin Laden.
Like all fanatics bin Laden is narrowly on his mission while being disconnected from the real world. Far from being the educated man he is said to be he, like his suicide-bombers, is remarkable ignorant of the West, specially the US. Although some of his followers have been educated at Western Universities their education has been confined to technical subjects like engineering. Those, for example, who attended US universities learnt nothing of US history or cultural values, confusing topless bars, which some of them enjoyed, with moral decay and lack of will. The sad fact is that what little they knew of US history and policies came entirely from the country’s anti-American left, which has painted a grossly dishonest picture of America that neatly fitted in with these terrorists’ anti-American dogma thus blinding them further to the political and military consequences of their actions.
As our editor pointed out at a recent seminar in Australia, being narrowly focused to the exclusion of all else is part of the terrorists’ Achilles heel. And so it is with bin Laden. Believing himself to be the hand of God and a follower of the one true faith, or his fanatical version of it, means he operates with an open loop. Therefore there is no negative feedback mechanism to correct his distorted picture of the world. There are no advisers to council restraint or retreat because like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc., he literally believes himself to be the only one capable of interpreting events and predicting their consequences.
Now we have bin Laden’s fundamental weakness. Being truly ignorant of American history and knowing nothing of the country’s political system he has made the mistake of drawing the wrong lesson from a narrow range of fairly recent events by interpreting it in terms of his world view: the refusal of George Bush senior’s to finish off Saddam Hussein, the hasty retreat from Somalia, the successful bombing of US embassies and military bases in Saudi Arabia, the attack on the Cole and Clinton’s self-serving pinprick responses to terrorism.
In bin Laden’s fantasy America would either respond in a Clintonesque way and so demonstrate to the world its cowardly nature or it would blindly strike out, killing hundreds if not thousands of innocents and so inflame the whole of the Islamic world. (Notice how closely his apocalyptic vision resembles the extreme left’s one of a world-wide revolution against capitalism).
He got neither. Instead of grabbing the initiative he made a terrible blunder. His actions pulled the US together, awakening in it a steely resolve that can have only one outcome. Instead of retreating or immediately striking out, President Bush set about building up a mighty military force not only to destroy bin Laden but to demonstrate to the rest of the world the consequences of attacking America. Afghanistan has been isolated, it’s borders sealed.
Battle lines have been drawn and are being supported with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Russia, Tajikstan. Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, even Iran, Pakistan and China are cooperating. British special forces (SAS) are already operating in the country while American special forces are moving in. A coordinated plan consisting of concentrated air attacks on terrorist camps and Taliban installations, special forces assault teams, and the cooperation of the Northern Alliance is being put into action. None of this, so the story goes, is supposed to be happening.
Moreover, there are rumors that the scale of the forces that bin Laden has unleashed has caused subterranean cracks to appear within the Taliban’s ranks, with some of them wondering why they should have to take the fall for bin Laden. The smarter ones know they are not popular among the mass of Afghans, and that if properly equipped and supported by Western powers the Northern Alliance would drive them back to their mountain villages — that is if the locals don’t hang them from cranes and artillery barrels first.
Afghan refugees are relating tales of an increasing number of Taliban acts of banditry and rape as order collapses in the towns and cities. The wholesale kidnapping of non-Pashtun males aged between 15 and 30 for ‘military’ service smells of panic because the Taliban knows these males belong to hostile ethnic minorities. These are not the actions of men who believe in their own invincibility.
So to some Arab observers Bush has already won. But surely if bin Laden is killed other bin Laden’s will arise. There is only one bin Laden, thank God. This latter-day Mahdi is just another religious millenarian who promises paradise by driving out the infidel, the cause of the faithful’s misery. Such people have been a curse throughout history.
I’m not saying that terrorism will end with bin Laden, only that his head must be the first to roll if victory is to be achieved. Once this is done, the invisible war against terrorism will accelerate, from the freezing of bank accounts to the assassination of terrorist organizers and the smashing of their networks.
The strategy, as explained to me, is basically simple. Make an example of bin Laden, demonstrate overwhelming military power and the will to use it against states that harbor and train terrorists; isolate the terrorists physically and squeeze them psychologically. The ultimate aim is the elimination of state-sponsored terrorism.
We wipe out Mecca and Medina, knock off bin Laden . . . just a thought.
Semper Disgusted
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Thank you.
If the terrorists had gotten degrees in American history from our leftist universities, they would have been even more anti-American.
As far as the theme is concerned, Bush's CIA didn't know this attack was coming, Bush's military couldn't stop it, and Bush himself has dismissed the only action that could immediately stop these terrorist attacks cold -- which is to arm the pilots.
Meanwhile, Bush's FAA has banned the use of steak knives on airline flights. Oh, and our borders still leak like a sieve.
Figure it out, boys and girls. Your government has poorly served you in this entire crisis, except to turn it into a PR extravaganza and a call for massive government spending to do what the last round of massive government spending totally failed to do -- which is protect our country.
Bush is turning into Clinton III, sans the adultery (that we know of).
Oh, and by the way, what subsidizes those American universities which fail to inculcate American values? Your federal government, that's who!
Don't call me a traitor here. Treason is when you betray a country. On the contrary, it is our government (collectively, the politicians) which has betrayed this country, and sought every opportunity for self-aggrandisement at the expense of the American people and their freedom, while leaving our borders open and our airline crews defenseless.
Think about that, when you're assigned your 'voluntary' National ID card.
What's funny about the picture that Bouncer posted, is that it makes W look like Chevy Chase.
We are looking at their movements by satelite. The offensive by the Northern alliance is forcing them to move their troops to respond. And the Northern alliance is probably being employed to gather on the ground intel (they blend easier that Spec Ops guys. They are paobably spec ops guys figuring out where our targets are located. Any bombing will be very directed and in support of on the ground ops to kill and capture. Hopefully we get to interrogate some of the lads to find out who their connections here are.
My guess is that the top priority is figuring out who the sleepers are who are already here and neutralizing. Bin Laden assoicates may know that info.
I don't think people who crave instant retaliation are nwecessarily liberals, but their need for instant gratification plays into the enemies hands and doesn't help us win. Which is the reason to do this to WIN.
I wouldn't have minded a couple of immediate bombs into Taliban held areas, but I was never calling for instant gratification. I don't know where you got that from. Certainly not from my above comments. But if the plan is to go with special forces insertion, it makes sense to go in while we know they're still there. We may be using national assets and team tracking to monitor movements. I'm fairly sure we're trying. But don't think for a second that we'll be 100% successful.
You mean this one?
Probably not much different than President Bush in response to the terrorists. Probably a lot different with Congress in that I don't think he'd be trying to sneak any tax cuts for the wealthy, Actric drilling or missle defense sheild into the appropriations bill. Gore would've found a way to sneak in childrens healthcare, environmental cleanup and education funding. In short, same tactics, just a different agenda.
You are either a DU fanatic, a "Hate America First" traitor, or a pathetically confused person.
Thank you for choosing sides and telling all of us.
It is pretty bad when someone makes a well-worded post on not underestimating the enemy and gets slammed as you did to them. I read the post and found NO BASIS for your slams!
This statement is non-sensical and smacks of disinformation.
It would be the height of stupidity to arm uneducated simple males who ostensibly are as likely to turn against them as not.
Something smells here...
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