[quidnunc]

Quote:

Don’t ask me what the long-term strategy behind these biennial attacks is supposed to be. But, from oh, say, November, it becomes harder with each passing week for the doom-mongers to argue that the lack of activity is consistent with bin Laden’s modus operandi. To be sure, I still read the in-depth reports by experts who say he’s alive and well and living on the Northwest Frontier. But, if he doesn’t show himself, then inevitably those ‘experts’ begin to sound like the fellows who claim to know the whereabouts of Lord Lucan or the truth about the Loch Ness Monster. It’s all very scientific, I’m sure, but sooner or later Lucan and Nessie have to do a bit of work and put in an appearance themselves.

Instead, Osama makes audio cassettes, and he licenses his subordinates to make audio cassettes, and they issue bloodcurdling threats against everyone from the Great Satan to hapless bystanders like Ireland and Canada, and none of those threats comes to pass. They’re all turban and no jihad. They were at it again the other day: ‘We announce there will be new attacks inside and outside [the US] which would make America forget the attacks of 11 September,’ said an al-Qa’eda spokesman.

Maybe he’s right, and by the time you read this Chicago and Atlanta will be ablaze. Or maybe it will be like all the other empty threats. Even in the Hindu Kush at the all-U-can-eat scorpion buffet, you can’t dine out on 9/11 for ever. This is a long war — but for America, with victories at home, in Afghanistan, in Iraq and elsewhere, it’s been a pretty good start.

Good writing, that!

[JohnHuang2]

Mark Steyn MEGA PING!

[prairiebreeze]

bookmark for later read

[Cuttnhorse]

"All turban and no jihad" Classic

[kimmie7]

Excellent, thank you.

[HiJinx]

They’re all turban and no jihad.

I think I just found my new tagline...for awhile, anyway.

[Warren_Piece]

But the advantage of sour oppositionism is that whatever happens there’s always something to sneer at.

This applies to a few Freepers as well.

[B.Bumbleberry]

Hour by hour, day by day, the jihadists are getting killed and captured. The invasion of Iraq is attracting the deadheads like lambs to the slaughter, has put enormous pressure on Iran, Syria and SA to stop supporting terrorists, and has taken enormous pressure off Israel. SA for the first time is taking effective action against local terrorists, terrorism supporters among the royal family are meeting mysterious deaths, and there is hint that the inciting to violence by the imams will soon be dealt with. Pakistan is quietly aiding in the search for AQ leaders in its tribal regions. And these are only the things we hear about. It will take years for the truth about all the clandestine operations going on to surface.

Yes, indeed, we are winning. In spades.

[Billthedrill]

If it’s a choice between Meacher or the Continentals who’ve turned down US requests for troop contributions because they want Iraq to go belly up so that Bush gets defeated in 2004 and some wimp Democrat gets elected who’ll treat them with the respect they deserve, I’ll take the latter.

Tears in my eyes on this one, because it's true. But "all turban and no jihad" is destined to become immortal.

[ken5050]

Steyn is, of course, absolutely correct...yet the sqad fact is that the Bush administration cannot, or perhaps fears, claiming credit for the fact that there has not been ONE single terrorist incident in the USA since 9/11, because, if the next day, a Moslem farted in Times Square, the entire media and the Dem candidates would be accusing W of hubris, and wailing that the administration was funding Homeland Security enough..

[Grammy]

"...pretext to grab Iraq’s oil and Afghanistan’s, er, rubble"

I love this liberal nonsense. My sister wanted to take me to an Afghani restaurant and I asked her why she would want to dine at a place that made high cuisine from......dirt.

[betty boop]

...the awesome divide between the postmodern sophists and everybody else is the real legacy of 11 September.

Let us hope so. And may that "awesome divide" between the self-selected elite chattering classes -- including the "nine dwarves" hoping for President Bush's job in 2004 -- and sane, reasonable human beings grow wider still, to the point where said elite can be clearly recognized displaying itself in the public square, in the full light of day, as the arrogant, irrational, self-loathing, and America-hating irrelevancies they all truly are. Truly, "the Emperor has no clothes"....

And thus, God willing, the innocent lost ones of 9/11 will not have died in vain.

Thanks for the great post, quidnunc. I love Mark Steyn.

[Brian Allen]

<< Excerpted - click for full article ^ >>

Why?

Are you getting kickbacks for any hits on your link?

[Don't hold your breath, then]

[SuziQ]

Even in the Hindu Kush at the all-U-can-eat scorpion buffet, you can’t dine out on 9/11 for ever.

ROTFL!!! That is just PRICELESS!!

[Poohbah]

Are Bush’s approval ratings plummeting? Gallup has him at 59 per cent. In any case, he always takes August off and his numbers always slip as noisy Democrats run around filling the vacuum. Then September arrives, he comes back to work and they rise again. It’s now an established seasonal variation.

Daschle and paleocons "deeply saddened."

[Corporate Law]

Classic Steyn. As someone said in a different thread, Lileks and Steyn, a great one - two punch.

[colorado tanker]

Dang, Steyn is good.

[Gritty]

They’re all turban and no jihad.

My gosh, is this fellow priceless, or what!!??

[TheDon]

Click on the link below to read the article mentioned by Mark. Is Europe really that out of touch?

Bush seeks an exit strategy as war threatens his career

[mikegi]

The "all turban, no jihad" line is great. Another classic, "he’s pushing up daisy-cutters".

[MeekOneGOP]

Miss Hawley has mistakenly assumed that Saddam thinks as she and Harold Pinter and Jacques Chirac do: that it’s all about America. When something blows up in Iraq and it can be passed off as a ‘setback’ for Bush, Miss Hawley has a good gloat. But it’s not much consolation to Saddam: he’s thinking of his gold toilet, and no matter how furiously Miss Hawley spins things he’s not going to be sitting on that ever again. They’ve sounded the last flush at the Presidential Palace. Likewise, for Mullah Omar.

Saddam sons killed in loo [bathroom]

$30 Million worth of trash

Uday Hussein, left, and Qusay Hussein

They're dead, Jim.