I appreciate your response and tone. I agree that some (and maybe most) of AQ view a Bush victory as a great recruiting tool. At the same time, had Bush lost, they could have used a Kerry victory as a recruiting tool by saying that their efforts helped rid the world of Bush, blah, blah, blah. AQ does not need a specific candidate to fulfill its objectives. AQ thrives on representing values opposite to American values. They will continue to do that as long as they exist and probably don't need anything from any American individual. They will spout off their anti-American anti-Western crap regardless of who the leader is. They may alter their tune somewhat depending on the target, but they can make either of them a lightning rod for support.
I disagree that they could have said their works got Bush thrown out, since terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda are on record as supporting the re-election of Bush. I do agree with you that Al Qaeda doesn't depend on either party to carry out terrorism. They would continue to be anti-American no matter which party was in charge. But I don't think Kerry's actions would radicalize the audience listening to OBL's message the way that Bush's actions would. Bush doesn't change what OBL does, but he may affect the reception the audience gives him. I think OBL realizes that.
I would love to see you in some sort of televised debate, arguing your opinion on whatever topic. You - " Man.... come on.... man... that has got to be a joke?....man." Moderator - " Uhm...you have a minute and 15 seconds left of your allotted 90, sir." You - " Really? man....., are you joking? Wow,man....... Hmmm, does that cover it?" Moderator - " Ehhhrrr, alright...Mr. Bojangles, would you like to respond?." Enlightening indeed!!!!
If Kerry thinks Usama cost him the election, he should have convinced the American people that he was tough on terror. He couldn't do that, and Usama didn't help him. The American people want a strong leader to fight terror. Kerry's waffling, flip-flopping personality is not strong. The people made the right decision on Nov 2.
Havnt you said this before? You repeat yourself a lot, mister. Is anything in this post of yours reveal any new facts on Kerry or any new opinion you have. Kerry's weak like turtle, Bush is strong like gorilla. We get it, we get it.
If Kerry thinks OBL cost him the election, ... As an aside as this thread is winding down, this is the topic I thought most poster swould comment on. I openly question whether Kerry is being completely truthful in his public statements wrt why he lost. I strongly suspect that in private he would mention other reasons like GWB unmitigated gay bashing via the gay marriage ban and like being out organized on the ground in battleground states in the get-out-the-vote efforts and like being outmarketed in defining his image to America.
i'm just thinking that Al Qaeda had it better BEFORE we took out the Taliban than AFTER we took out the Taliban. i think they've been disrupted, to say the least. the notion that the organization is stronger or better organized because of George Bush seems incorrect to me.
It is not better organized, it is more localized, which makes it more difficult to detect and hence dangerous; as a general matter, however, your thesis is contracdicted by pretty much every intelligence or counter terror analyst around - CIA, DIA, Army, FBI etc. I could cite them all but there really isn't any point. Afghanistan was convenient for them, no question - but it was just a bunch of freaking jungle gyms in the middle of the desert. The dangerous cells are in Europe, Florida, etc. This is nto an argument that Afghanistan did not have to be cleaned up - it did - but the critical mistake was re-invigorating their movement via Iraq. (yes, I know, they had an election - great. Too bad we trained and inspired a generation of hard core jihadists in the process)
Sam -- if they can't effectively communicate...if they're disorganized. if funds have been seized. then they can all be pissed off locally all they want. but they might have a harder time carrying out large scale events than they did in the past.
Their funding doesn't come from the first national bank of kabul - if only it were that easy! The september 11 scheme wasn't organized from some dusty cave in Afghanistan, it was plotted by email & cellphone in Florida and Germany and England. Same with the March 11 bombings in Spain etc. These guys don't exercise operational control, that would be silly and ineffective. Afghanistan's convenience was that it was a good place for indoctrination and that OBL could walk around unmolested, but the slums of Paris, London, Madrid, Rome etc are as good a place as any for that sort of thing these days. (the first part at least) Some poor kid from Waziristan shooting an AK 47 at the local warlord isn't as dangerous, to us at least.
