An odd thing about the President’s recent speeches on 9/11 is how much he’s been quoting Osama Bin Laden. From today’s speech :
The fighting in Iraq has been difficult and it has been bloody, and some say that Iraq is a diversion from the war on terror. The terrorists disagree. Osama bin Laden has proclaimed that the “third world war is raging” in Iraq. Al Qaeda leaders have declared that Baghdad will be the capital of the new caliphate that they wish to establish across the broader Middle East. It’s hard to believe that extremists would make large journeys across dangerous borders to endure heavy fighting, and to blow themselves up on the streets of Baghdad for a so-called “diversion.” The terrorists know that the outcome in the war on terror will depend on the outcome in Iraq — and so to protect our own citizens, the free world must succeed in Iraq.
It’s weird enough to take the “if you don’t believe me, believe Osama” approach to tie the Iraq war with 9/11, but even stranger is this bit from a speech Bush gave two days ago wherein he cites Bin Laden’s strategy without realizing that he’s executing the al Qaeda plan for victory for them :
Bin Laden calls this his “bleed-until-bankruptcy plan.” And he cited the attacks of 9/11 as evidence that such a plan can succeed. With the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden says, “al Qaeda spent $500,000 on the event, while America… lost — according to the lowest estimate — $500 billion… Meaning that every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million dollars†of America. Bin Laden concludes from this experience that “America is definitely a great power, with… unbelievable military strength and a vibrant economy, but all of these have been built on a very weak and hollow foundation.” He went on to say, “Therefore, it is very easy to target the flimsy base and concentrate on their weak points, and even if we’re able to target one-tenth of these weak points, we will be able [to] crush and destroy them.”
We’ve sunk untold billions of dollars into homeland security, pissed away even more in Iraq, driven the deficit to its extreme, lost jobs, watched wages sink, given away the treasury to wealthy individuals and corporations, and crawled out of a recession only to find ourselves on the verge of stagflation. Bleed until bankruptcy? Sounds about right to me. And Bin Laden should know. The Afghan mujahideen certainly didn’t help the Soviet Union.
And if watching the President foolishly play into terrorist hands isn’t frustrating enough, Bushie then has the gall to quote Bin Laden again to smear anyone who would question the government :
Secondly, along with this campaign of terror, the enemy has a propaganda strategy. Osama bin Laden laid out this strategy in a letter to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, that coalition forces uncovered in Afghanistan in 2002. In it, bin Laden says that al Qaeda intends to “[launch],” in his words, “a media campaign… to create a wedge between the American people and their government.” This media campaign, bin Laden says, will send the American people a number of messages, including “that their government [will] bring them more losses, in finances and casualties.”
Get the message? The President is saying that anyone with the temerity to question the government (which he’s been running for six years) is guilty of falling for terrorist propaganda. You’re either with Bush or with Bin Laden, who Bush has been quoting all week to support himself. Okay, now this is getting confusing…