Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

One conclusion to draw from the new Osama bin Laden video tape is that the mastermind of 9/11 apparently is worrying about his relevance these days.

And judging by the transcript, he has good reason to worry about it. Among other things, bin Laden maunders about corporations causing global warming and the Democrats failing to get the U.S. out of Iraq. Speculation is already rife that he is wearing a fake beard, since his grey of a few years ago has mysteriously disappeared. It seems he's either lost his mind, or is the victim of a covert action campaign.

The new tape aside, it's hard to imagine that bin Laden is happy about what he's wrought in the last six years since 9/11. How can he not see that he is accountable for the death of tens of thousands of Muslims, nearly all of them believers, innocent of any crimes against Islam? Whether he intended it or not, bin Laden is largely responsible for destroying Iraq. And displacing two million Iraqi Muslims.

Bin Laden has lost in the Kingdom. The Saudi royal family is still standing, having rooted out bin Laden's networks. Saudi Arabia is no closer now to the Islamic caliphate bin Laden envisaged than it was before 9/11. And Iraq has shown his vision of a supranational radical Islam to be more of a pipe dream than a reality.

The same is true for the rest of the Middle East. Without exception, regimes across the Middle East, from Pakistan to Morocco, are more repressive than they were before 9/11. It's arguable they are more stable and better prepared to crush bin Laden's extremist interpretation of Islam.

September 11 has not forced the United States to lessen its support to Israel. In fact, it has been increased � and with fewer questions. Likewise the United States is less inclined to protest human rights violations in the Middle East.

I have no doubt that bin Laden can and will mount a terrorist operation, anything from bombing the London tube to an attack on New York's subway. Thanks to the Internet, a suicide bomber under bin Laden's sway can buy all the chemicals he needs from his local pharmacy to fabricate a bomb. He also can find the religious guidance, as specious as it might be, to justify the act.

Bin Laden should know by now that if he does manage a terrorist attack, the only thing he should count on is a hardening of America and its allies' positions. Especially in Europe. An attack there, such as the foiled plot in Germany, would sweep away European unhappiness about secret prisons and Guantanamo, once again lining Europe behind the U.S. in its war against Al-Qaeda.

Islamic history will remember Osama bin Laden as a bad Muslim. Islamic canon is formal: a Muslim leader must do everything he can within his power to prevent fitna � civil war between Muslims. And that is exactly what Bin Laden has done in Iraq, drawing us into a war and creating the circumstances for Shia and Sunni to kill each other. Whether or not al-Qaeda is responsible for every market truck bomb in Iraq or not, it will be laid at bin Laden's feet.

With this kind of carnage tied to his name, bin Laden would be better off staying put in his cave and keeping his mouth shut.

Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1660197,00.html

[atomic42]

Right, really neat post.
Bin Laden died in 2002, but even if he survived the kidney disease, bombings of Tora Bora and intense manhunt encompassing the entire globe, he's irrelevant and had nothing to do with the unfolding events. He's also incapable of dying his beard and recording a new video.

He's dead.

[Dome Vans]

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

Dome Vansbehind the U.S. in its war against Al-Qaeda[/color].[/quote]

[Kuros]

Joo,

When I read the transcript of Bin Laden's speech, I thought the same thing. This guy is desperate. Its good to see someone like Baer agrees with me.



Dome Vans,

I'm still waiting on evidence of government funding of the US media. I'm a patient guy, but it seems like in your America-bashing fervor, you've forgotten all about my request. I tried looking for the evidence myself, but I can't find it! Again, I've always been under the impression that the American government does not fund the private media, so I was shocked when you asserted it. Am I missing out on something?

And now I feel the same sensation when you talk about Americans losing their civil liberties. I was wondering if you could point me to how my liberties are being threatened, because I'm feeling perfectly fine here in the US right now.

[butlerian]

Civil liberties are under fire across the globe. "The war on terror" is greatly helping governments to control its citizens. It's like a socialist/communist government, but without the decency. Disturbing, to say the least.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

[Kuros]

[Gopher]

Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone, Michael Moore, Naomi Wolf, Chalmers Johnson, Stephen Kinzer, William Blum, Keith Olbermann, and perhaps even Jon Stewart. Scott Ritter has been attacking the American govt since the Clinton Administration. All alive and well, however. None behind bars or harassed. And, more to the point, all still publishing their antigovernment invective and/or whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

Various governments have erred far worse than the W. Bush Administration in American history vis-a-vis civil liberties. And our republic still stands.

And I do mean "various goverments" and I do mean to say that this goes way back in American history. Yet our republic still stands.

Congress functions. The Supreme Court and all other courts function. States retain their rights and powers. The press remains free and universities and law-schools remain autonomous. Democratic elections still occur peacefully and regularly. And W. Bush will retire from office, as scheduled, when his successor peaceably takes office, whoever he or she might be, in Jan. 2009.

In any case, I join Kuros in asking for specifics and evidence. Our civil liberties are not under assault today. And they are not coming under assault, either. The far left, antiAmericans, and their shrill hyperbole notwithstanding.

Nice OP, Joo.

[nautilus]

[mack4289]

[Kuros]

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

[Kuros]

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

At some point soon the US ought to withdraw the vast majority of its forces to Kurdistan. They clearly support the US there.