Digital Warfighter
Total Information Dominance
Updated: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 09:23 AM
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Peace in Their Time
Al Qaeda has offered the people of Europe a remarkable bargain - leave us alone, and we'll leave you alone. That means, of course, get out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan,stop doing business with Israel, continue attempts to frustrate US efforts - in short, he's offering terms of surrender.
Now, it's probably a given that the Europeans will reject this out of hand<font size=3> - they have to (of course, I thought that the Spanish would find their resolve hardened, so take that with a grain of salt). The question is whether we'll see a tilt toward the Spanish solution - popular elections hinging directly on voters' unwillingness to risk terror attacks. With the French and German governments currently on the ropes politically, this would be much less of a surprise. Bin Laden saw the success of the Madrid bombing. One reason for this new audio tape may have been an attempt to stop further bombings in Spain - to show that capitulation will bring safety rather than continuing threats. If the enemy is convinced that no surrender will be accepted, he is more likely to fight to the death. In the column for national honor and resolve, however, it must also be pointed out that bin Laden promises more strikes against the US in retaliation for Israel's killing of Sheik Yassin. No one is even speculating that US backing for Israel will decline in the face of this threat.
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PS Oh, yeah. And it appears the Democrats were right. According to OBL, the war in Iraq is all about Halliburton and the military-industrial complex. Isn't it funny how the media-hyped criticism spouted one week by the far Left ends up on our enemy's lips the next? Why, you'd think that bin Laden thinks our resolve is crumbling due to domestic pressure, and that he sees the possibility of victory there. But you can't question the patriotism of someone who spends several months in Vietnam (or even his good judgement on things like this), can you? |
