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"Piffle," Osama (is said to have) replied. "It would make the ultimate recruitment poster. Recruiting jihadists would become easier than pie."
"Bah!" his confederates cried in unison. "Do not do this, Osama."
The question for the United States and other Western nations is: How effective are we being in making Osama wrong and his nay-saying confederates right? Will Osama's recruitment vision fade and his own violent death serve as a symbolic warning for other potential jihadists?
I’m not encouraged by reports coming out of Afghanistan or Iraq or, frankly, anywhere else in the Near East. In Syria, al-Qaeda is apparently playing a larger and larger role in opposing President Bashar al-Assad (“Al Qaeda Taking Deadly New Role in Syria’s Conflict,” published in the New York Times on July 24). For example.
But if the 9/11 Truthers are right, and Osama wasn’t even responsible for the attack on the Twin Towers, and it was instead a plot carried out by a cabal in our own government to provoke taxpayers’ dollars’ going to “the military-industrial complex,” then the question for the United States would seem to be—
Or, rather, the answer would seem to be: "Damn, it worked!"
A disturbing ending to this post. "If the 9/11 truthers are right..."? Are you really entertaining this possibility, Morris?
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Ken, I am not. But some of our fellow Americans are, so we can occasionally spare them an hypothetical. Plus, if anyone has never heard of the 9/11 Truthers, this might be anyone's chance to have done so.
DeleteAnd, of course, if any Truthers are reading this, this is your chance for a brief forum, before we move on to rabbits in the back yard or something similarly profound.
Moristotle, perhaps you and your friend should try doing a little research. On the other hand, maybe you are both better suited to "rabbits in the backyard." (-:
ReplyDeletehttp://ae911truth.org/en/evidence.html
A "little" research? Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous, what particular thing are you objecting to? That is, to what particular evidence at the site cited do you wish to direct our attention?
DeleteThanks.
And, while you're at it, would you mind identifying yourself?
Moristotle, best wishes to you on establishing any sort of coherent and open-minded discussion on this topic.
ReplyDeleteNearly 50 years after his death, polls indicate most Americans believe John F Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald working within a conspiracy rather than alone. That percentage of "conspiracy believers" has grown from approximately 50% at the time JFK was killed to 80% today despite the fact that not a shred of evidence has been found to support the conspiracy theory.
In a number of polls taken shortly after 9/11, approximately half the respondents were skeptical of official U.S. government reports. Those numbers have risen since, so it seems a good bet the "9/11 conspiracy theory" numbers will eventually match skepticism about JFK's death.
As for the "9/11 truthers" - as I understand it part of their theory is that the Twin Towers were felled by planted explosives, not by the planes flying into them. On the surface that may seem absurd, but the "9/11 Commission" added fuel to that fire when they didn't investigate why World Trade Center Building 7 fell later in the day on 9/11, despite not being hit by a plane.
Since we are indulging in conjecture, how about approaching it from the perspective of a "whodunit" mystery novel? That leads us to a list of suspects with motive and opportunity:
* Despite denying al-Qaeda's role in the 9/11 attacks for three years, Osama bin-Laden claimed responsibility in 2004. He cited U. S. support for Israel and U.S. troops in his Saudi Arabia homeland as reasons. Others have said the attack was also aimed at hurting the U.S. economy and increasing terrorist recruitment. So al-Qaeda had motive, and considering their other high-profile attacks before and after 9/11, they knew how to create opportunity.
* Up to 9/11, George W. Bush was still trying to recover from his tainted presidential victory, and his public approval rating was hovering barely above 50 percent. He needed something to get a bump in the polls. 9/11 achieved that, putting him at 90% despite being the man in charge when America endured its worst mainland attack in two centuries. Conspiracy theorists say that gave him motive, and that as commander in chief he had opportunity to allow the attack to happen.
* The U.S. Department of Defense is seemingly always on the lookout for anything that will enable them to ask for a budget increase. Here again, conspiracy theorists look at the eye-popping post 9/11 expenditures and say that gave DOD the motive.
So when do we go back to writing about rabbits in the back yard?
At 3:00 a.m. Eastern.
DeleteWe have two beautiful gray foxes, three raccoons and an opossum that show up in our backyard most evenings sometime between 7:30 and 9:00 - we leave the floodlight on so we can watch them. We also have two adult barred owls and their young from this year that live on the property plus a nesting pair of red-shouldered hawks. It is therefore not a rabbit-friendly place. We have a few squirrels, no rabbits.
ReplyDelete