IcksNay on the RusdaeCay

By Kanrei So it seems Bush is remembering who Bin Laden is after all. We all remember his great announcement of “I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him” from March 2002. It was in the run up to the unrelated war in Iraq, so it was natural for him to dismiss Bin Laden at that time, but now that his party is so unpopular and Iraq is all but a failure in terms of nation building, our beloved President not only remembers Bin Laden, but has upgraded him as well. Now the unimportant Bin Laden is up there with Lenin and Hitler. I really thought the whole “World War Two Nazi” comparison was finished with, but I guess not. I seem to remember the Republicans being the ones screaming the most whenever that “N” word would pop up, but now they are trumpeting it from the rooftops. Should we point out that the Nazis were defeated in less time? “Bin Laden and his terrorist’s allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them” What exactly are their intentions? I do not mean to be stupid although I may be, but what exactly is their endgame? I have heard it was because they hated our freedoms. I have heard they want us dead. I have heard they want us out of the Middle East. I have heard they want Israel out of the Middle East. I have heard they feel invaded by the West. Last I heard they want to take over the entire world. I know Hitler and Lenin did want world domination. They were very vocal about this fact on numerous occasions; Stalin even more than Lenin. I think Stalin was probably who Bush was talking about, but, as we all know, he is the Dubya and could mean anything. So what exactly is Bin Laden’s goal? It is easy to say he wants the world. That is the common claim we use for every enemy we face, but I cannot believe this really. How does 9-11 make anyone want to convert to a so called religion of peace? It doesn’t, so how can conversion be their point? They do not hate our culture because our movies and music sell very well over there. No, it seems that now they hate us because they are evil and their faith is evil as well. “The terrorists who attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, are men without conscience, but they’re not madmen…They kill in the name of a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs that are evil but not insane.” While this might help somewhat explain 9-11, I cannot accept "a set of beliefs that are evil but not insane" to explain all Muslims. He cannot really believe this. It has to be propaganda for the only base his party has left. I would say they are insane, but evil? I mean strapping on a vest made of bombs because you believe G-d will give you 72 virgins in the afterlife is not the sanest motivation a person can have. By writing off the every Muslim as evil, he is placating his ultra-religious followers: the American equivalent of what he claims we oppose. I know people are screaming at me through their monitor that Bush never said Islam, he said terrorists. Sorry, am I supposed to segregate this speech from all the other references to our war against “Islamofascism”? Or does “Islamofascism” have nothing to do with Islam? He did say this was a crusade at the start of all this. I wonder if that was not a slip after all. I don’t think Bush can even keep up with his spin anymore, but he does keep one constant theme going: nothing is his fault. Remember what we learned last week, day-to-day handling of this war is being run by the military and not him. This same lack of accountability holds true for the rise in terrorism world-wide on his watch as well. It seems we are just too damn good at stopping them. “Our effective counterterrorist efforts in part have forced the terrorists to evolve and modify their ways of doing business” I am so happy evolution does not happen. I would be scared otherwise. Seriously though, I want to know the "effective counterterrorist efforts". I know people will say we have not been hit since 9/11/01, but I believe we were hit under Clinton in 1993 and were not hit again by a foreign power (Show me proof Iraq was involved in Oklahoma). I thought Clinton was weak on terrorism, but using this logic he was better than Bush because he actually got the people who did it AND avoided a war, let alone two. I am sorry, but this discombobulated collection of ramblings (his, not mine) do not give me any faith what so ever in their vision for this war. While claiming they are fighting terrorism to make us safer, they talk more like they want to wipe out the Islamic faith. They practically admit it again in their updated terror-fighting strategy: “There will continue to be challenges ahead, but along with our partners, we will attack terrorism and its ideology and bring hope and freedom to the people of the world” I would say irony is defined as world domination to prevent world domination. This is a jihad against jihads. The irony would be priceless if I did not have to live this life-threatening madness. Never ending war is not a campaign strategy for the November elections no matter what Rove is telling you.