Iraq, Message Points, Politics, Worst President Ever
If it’s true that Osama bin Laden died of a “waterborne illness” last month, as is looking fairly credible, I can’t help but think of the ending to War of the Worlds. Remember how humans weren’t saved from the Martians by firepower or strategy, but by disease microbes?
In another moment I had scrambled up the earthen rampart and stood upon its crest, and the interior of the redoubt was below me. A mighty space it was, with gigantic machines here and there within it, huge mounds of material and strange shelter places. And scattered about it, some in their overturned war-machines, some in the now rigid handling-machines, and a dozen of them stark and silent and laid in a row, were the Martians — DEAD! — slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.
For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen had not terror and disaster blinded our minds.
Gives me goosebumps, or makes me laugh bitterly, or both. If Osama is dead, and not by anything Bush and his minions can claim credit for, then what next?
We’ve been playing Whack-a-Mole for five years now, as the Bush administration identifies an endless stream of second-in-commands. We are usually introduced to them as they are captured or killed, but in a few weeks or months, new ones with similar names replace them. And none of it brings us any closer to some kind of ending in this fight.
So if bin Laden is dead, has in fact been dead for awhile now, then why are still at it? All along, we have accepted the Bush-given view that if we just kill all the “evil-doers,” especially the leaders, the problem’s solved. Could it be maybe, just maybe, the solution was never extermination? As George Lakoff and Evan Frisch pointed out in a brilliant Buzzflash guest contribution, declaring war on terror[ists] was a dumb strategy.
To Osama bin Laden, the moral was simple: American power can be used against America itself. This moral has defined the post 9/11 world: the more America uses military force in the Middle East, the more damage is done to America and Americans.
The more Americans kill and terrorize Muslims, the more we recruit Muslims to become terrorists and fight against us.
The war in Iraq was over in 2003 when the US forces defeated Saddam’s army. Then the American occupation began…
If bin Laden is dead, I can’t wait to hear what our new goal is morphed into by the folks who are profiting from all this carnage. But rest assured, a new one there will be. The question is, will we keep accepting it?
Topics: Iraq, Message Points, Politics, Worst President Ever
Next? They’ve already laid the groundwork. “We’ve said all along that Osama is not the primary target in the Global War on Terrorism”.
We have already passed the point of no return as a nation we have failed to prevent the takeover of our nation and it’s people by the forces of evil incarnate. We failed to prevent the illegal invasion and failed to uncover the massive propaganda machine and real intent of the current regieme when it might have made a difference.
The only machine that can stop them now is the military machine and let’s hope that it does.
I’ve suspected that bin Laden was either dead or had been captured for several weeks now.
One of the clues was the change in White House rhetoric early this month. After years of shying away from mentioning bin Laden’s name, they suddenly started mentioning his name at every chance they got.
Then, Bush started downplaying the capture (or killing) of bin Laden. In one speech he said capturing (killing) bin Laden wasn’t that big a deal, but his administration would continue to go after al Qaeda. People noticed that Bush seemed to be flip-flopping once again, but it makes sense if reports of bin Laden’s death had reached the White House in early September.
Then, Musharraf of Pakistan apparently called off the hunt for bin Laden in the tribal areas of Pakistan where bin Laden supposedly has been hiding. Musharraf signed a truce with the tribal elders there and pulled Pakistani troops out. Once again, it only makes since if bin Laden’s “verifiably” dead. Plus, Musharraf just said the other day that his pulling the troops out didn’t mean he wasn’t still intent on stopping the Taliban or any al Qaeda in that area, but no mention of bin Laden.
Therefore, odds are that this was the October surprise Karl Rove was crowing about the other day, but a French newspaper beat the Republican Party to the punch.
Bin Laden must have died in late August and probably from “typhoid fever” as reported by Saudi intelligence, with his kidney problems also contributing to his death.
The Bush administration then ordered all the governments “in on” this little secret to keep quiet until Bush officially made the announcement in October, but (thank God) some French newspaper stole Bush’s thunder.
In other words, apparently typhoid fever did something that the hapless Bush administration failed to do in five years (including at Tora Bora)…kill the religious mobster, Osama bin Laden.
I guess they’ll still be able to show Osama TV, in the form of videos made “apparently before his death, and just now uncovered,” until they’ve wrung every last drop of terror juju out of his memory.
I think George W. Bush is actually a nine-foot alien reptile.