Apparently, Al-Queda is quite...concerned about having Democrats in power. By way of maha, I found this David Ignatius op-ed, who quotes Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradhawi (italics mine):
Before the election, the radical Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradhawi even issued a fatwa supporting John McCain: "Personally, I would prefer for the Republican candidate, McCain, to be elected. This is because I prefer the obvious enemy who does not hypocritically [conceal] his hostility toward you . . . to the enemy who wears a mask [of friendliness]."Obama makes the jihadists nervous because he is an appealing new face whose ascension undermines the belief that Islam and the West are locked in an inescapable clash of civilizations. "The Democrats kill you slowly without you noticing it. . . . They are like a snake whose touch is not felt until its poison enters your body," observes Qaradhawi.
Huh? Does this resemble any Democrats you know? Reid? Pelosi? Oh wait, Qaradhawi must be referring to...Evan Bayh.
I think everyone is kinda losing their heads. Of course, if al-Queda wants to misunderestimate the U.S. (to use a phrase...), I'm OK with that.
Weird.
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Keep in mind a couple of things:
1) Al-Queda has serious hangups on Western culture, per se -- one of their demands was that the USA censor Hollywierd. The Democrats are not a step in that direction. The theoconservatives are much more their kind of people.
2) A key objective for terrorists is to polarize. Being bombed is, in that light, a good thing in that it does wonders for recruitment and financial support. "Come, let us reason together" is not good news for terrorists.
3) Another key objective is to drive changes in the target civilization. Pushing us into becoming a repressive police state (think Egypt) again suits their purposes. Voting history aside, a wave of anti-Bush pols coming into power can't look too rosy to them.
They've been doing pretty well on the whole MBO thing for seven years, but the current economy may well cut into their bonus propgram.
McCain would have been great for him. That shit about democrats killing you slowly or w/ is just to remind the plebs they still need to be scared even if the next president is pledging about god telling him to crusade, I'd be very surprised if he or anybody else in charge actually believed it.
8 years of Bush was the best thing that ever happened for al-Queda. You can only rant about how Hte Evil Amerika is trying to destroy everybody for so long, w/o them actually doing anything, before people just stop paying attention. Bush solved that problem and helped them greatly by invading a 3rd party muslimish country for no apparent reason, all the while blathering on about how the baby jebus told him to do it.
Best. Recruiting ad. Ever.
That should read, "even if the next president isn't pledging about god telling him to crusade."
In the same way, I feel that US opposition has been the best thing that could have happened to Castro. No matter how awful conditions were, he could always say 'We are doing well considering the most powerful country in the world is trying to bring us to our knees'.
I'm generally with the Cheney & Bush II are al-Qaeda's best recruiters crowd. One possible result of this is the general lack of actions ("attacks") outside Cheney's extermination countries. And no, I am not forgetting the actions in Spain, Britain, and elsewhere; "general lack" simply means it seems there's been fewer attempts than one might expect?
I also presume the president-elect and his team won't be so helpful to al-Qaeda.
So putting those two presumptions together (and presuming they are more-or-less correct), does that result in an increased risk of al-Qaeda or other loonies attempting actions (outside Cheney's slaughterhouse) more frequently? And at the risk of descending (further?) into conspiracy-mongering, I wonder if al-Qaeda or other loonies have been using the past 6-ish years to build up cells in anticipation of Cheney & Bush The Trivial leaving the stage? That is, does al-Qaeda have operatives in place, more-or-less as a direct result of Cheney & Bush's recruitment drive?
Richard, Che Guevara sent a note to Kennedy: "Thanks for Playa Girón [Bay of pigs]. Before the invasion, the revolution was weak. Now it's stronger than ever." Castro was on the way out before that invasion, but has been sitting secure ever since.