Thoughts on failed strategery....

With the arrival of the latest bin Laden video, the spinmeisters from both sides of the aisle have predictably started... well, spinning away. Bush accuses Kerry of "Monday-morning quarterbacking" and Kerry accuses Shrubby of "outsourcing the job of getting Osama".

Now for my two cents...

Osama and company are killers. They are probably among some of the best in the world. Hell, a lot of them were called freedom fighters in the 80s and armed and funded (whether directly or indirectly) by the good old US of A. Responsibility for 9/11 lies solely at the feet of Al Qaeda and the nineteen men who took over the aircraft. However...

Bush and Kerry still don't appear to get the whole picture. Clinton should be put away for life for neglecting to even have a semblance of a plan for dealing with Osama on his home turf. We were right to go after Osama. We didn't do it the right way, but we can't change what's already been done. Bush wanted Osama "dead or alive" but failed to deploy anywhere near the number of troops necessary to achieve an overwhelming victory. I realize that Bush was left in kind of a crappy position after Slick Willy's time in office, but we could have done better. We were able to get over 100,000 troops into Iraq. Again, we can't change what's been done, but Bush isn't the right man for the job. Kerry is no better...

Neither Kerry nor Bush will even give the consideration necessary to the foreign policy changes that might be of assistance in the "war on terror".

Now, since the media likes to give short and sweet versions of things (and I detest link-rot), I've copied the transcript of Osama's entire speech from the English site of AlJazeera. Thank you AlJazeera!

"Transcript of bin Ladin's speech by Saturday 30 October 2004 11:28 AM GMT

Following is the English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech in a videotape aired by Aljazeera on Friday 29 October. In the interests of authenticity the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the foot of the screen, has been left unedited.


To begin: Peace be upon he who follow the Guidance.

People of United States, this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan and deals with the war and its causes and results.

Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar in human life and that free men do not forfeit their security contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom.

If so, then let him explain why did not strike - for example - Sweden.

And we know that freedom haters do not possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 may Allah have mercy on them.

No, we fight because we are free men who do not sleep under oppression.

We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation so shall we lay waste to yours.

But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real cause and thus the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.

So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and I shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken for you to consider.

I say to you Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike towers.

But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the America/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.

The events that affected my soul in a difficult way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American 6th fleet helped them in that.

And the whole world saw and heard but did not respond.

In those difficult moments many hard to describe ideas bubbled in my soul but in the end they produced intense feelings of rejection of tyranny and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.

And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressors in kind and that we destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.

We have not found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half of which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.

Our experience with them is lengthy and both types are replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth.

This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Senior to the region at a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries. All of a sudden he was affected by these monarchies and military regimes and became jealous of their remaining decades in their position to embezzle the public wealth of the Nation without supervision or accounting.

So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act under the pretences of fighting terrorism.

In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors and did not forget to import expertise in election fraud from the regions presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.

All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.

And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration notice.

It never occurred to us that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at a time when they most needed him.

But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers we were given three times the period required to execute the operations. All praise is due to Allah.


Aljazeera
By

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm"

Make of it what you will...