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Friday, October 29, 2004

Bin Laden Weighs In

Perhaps he couldn't send a large bomb - though it's not yet too late. In any case, Osama bin Laden's personal electoral input so far appears to be limited to a video tape, in which he makes a rare appearance without a firearm to offer some sage counsel to American voters on the subject of US national security. (See CBS story with partial transcript.)

He says he and his people don't hate freedom, that they are fighting for freedom. He says that if the US did not undermine Arab security, they would not undermine ours. He compared the US government to Arab regimes, which are either run by the military or by the sons of kings and presidents. He presented recent attacks on the US, including on September 11, 2001, as being a legitimate response to the injustice of American policy in the Middle East as far back a 1982. The response was motivated by a strong desire to reject injustice and punish those who perpetrate it, he explained.

Bin Laden has definitely picked up some Democratic Party talking points. He could do that by watching the news; I'm not saying the DNC faxed him their points. Come to think of it, he wouldn't even have to do that, since both Osama bin Laden and the Democratic Party base their reasoning on the premise that the USA (at least when led by Republicans) is wrong and evil. The rest follows naturally. Besides, though you never know what was lost in translation (one way or the other), bin Laden's rhetoric wasn't quite slick enough to make me think it came straight from Terry MacAuliffe.

Copyright 2004 by David Rodeback.
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