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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (319263)	11/14/2002 6:41:11 PM
From: Dr. Doktor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

The best argument for that rubbish being false is the fact that they haven't detonated any nukes yet. These people couldn't wait a second to use a nuke if they had one. Here's a clever article: Archive E-mail Author Send to a Friend Print Version NOV. 14, 2002: BIN LADEN SPEAKS That Bin Laden Tape: If Osama bin Laden is alive, he sure chose a funny way to prove it: a poor-quality audio tape breathing vengeance against almost everyone on Planet Earth. He sounds less like a Hidden Imam than like a gangster in the final reel of a 1930s shoot-‘em-up: “I’ll get you Rocco, see, if it’s the last thing I do"--rat-a-tat-a-tat. American officials are said to worry that the reappearance of bin Laden and the intercepted “chatter” on his terror network portend a new attack or attacks. It’s interesting the timing of all this, isn’t it? The terror attack on the Bali nightclub, now this tape, all coinciding with imminent military action in Iraq. We are again and again told that Muslim extremists like Osama and Arab nationalists like Saddam hate and mistrust each other and could never have anything in common. Yet the Muslim extremists and Arab nationalists do not seem to see it that way themselves. I was in London six weeks ago and watched thousands of British Muslim extremists marching in support of Saddam Hussein. They may despise the Iraqi dictator as an ungodly man. But the ungodly dictator’s enemies are their enemies, and in the Middle East a common hatred has long been a much surer bond than professed friendship. Bin Laden and the Left: In the tape, Bin Laden formally adds another couple of grievances to his already long list. Previously he told us he was mad about the Reconquista of Spain, the overthrow of the Ottoman Caliphate by Kemal Ataturk, and the creation of Israel. Now he’s agitated about the Mongol capture of Baghdad in 1258 and ... East Timorese independence. But wait a minute: wasn’t East Timor the pet cause of Noam Chomsky and the campus far left in the 1980s and 1990s? Hitherto, Chomsky and his pals have opposed the terror war: after all, bin Laden had merely attacked their country. But now, surely, this terrorist has gone too far! Greenspan’s Report: Alan Greenspan is not a man of enthusiasm. But listen to or read his latest report on the U.S. economy, and it is hard to miss a note of awe. One year ago, the United States absorbed the most horrific attack on its own territory in its history: Pearl Harbor and the San Francisco earthquake all rolled into one. And yet, in the four quarters since the attack, the U.S. economy has posted an average growth rate of 3%. There’s no comparing the characters of these two men, but on Greenspan’s evidence, Osama bin Laden managed to do less harm to the U.S. economy than President Jimmy Carter. War Slogans: Jay Nordlinger rightly protests against those "No War on Iraq" label buttons and calls for a counter-slogan. He reminds me of something Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, has said. "This is not a war on Iraq. It is a war for Iraq." It fits on a lapel button too. Angry Canadians: Canada is very agitated about Jonah Goldberg’s cover story in the current NR, accusing Canadians of succumbing to a national wimp compex. One of Canada’s most solemn journalists has urgently called on Canadians to pay no attention to “Pat Buchanan, Bill O'Reilly, the editors of the National Review and The Weekly Standard [, and] the editorial writers of The Wall Street Journal.” Well, harumph. One question though: what’s Pat Buchanan doing on this list? On October 31, he fired off on his TV program one of his most pungent insults: He called Canada, “Soviet Canuckistan.” Rather funny that. But what’s his beef with Canada? The Canadian government’s policy on terror is virtually identical to Buchanan’s own stated views. Prime Minister Jean Chretien opposes almost all military action in the Middle East. So does Pat. Chretien believes that Saddam Hussein should get fourteen or eighteen more chances. Pat would give him even more. Chretien recently caused a scandal by shaking the hand of the prime minister of Lebanon immediately after the latter gave a speech denouncing the existence of the state of Israel. The speech was only a slightly livelier version of the articles you’ll find in Buchanan’s own new magazine, The American Conservative. Buchanan charges that Canada is inhabited by the “blame American first crowd.” Yet who in American journalism this side of Noam Chomsky blames America more vigorously than Buchanan? Here for example is what Buchanan himself said when I debated him on “Hardball” on September 30: “9/11 was a direct consequence of the United States meddling in an area of the world where we do not belong and where we are not wanted. We were attacked because we were on Saudi sacred soil and we are so called repressing the Iraqis and we’re supporting Israel and all the rest of it.” Maybe next time Buchanan should run for prime minister of Canada rather than president of the United States.