Cute
Sometime earlier today, Al Jazeera played a tape from Osama bin Laden promising his usual round of threats against the Great Satan. In the grand scheme of things, you might think that someone who runs an organization that has done multiple attacks against the United States would be considered a threat? Like, say, a threat worth putting up the pretend Homeland Security threat level from "yellow", where it's been ever since John Kerry gave up in the morning hours of November 3rd last year?
Umm, nope. It's still yellow. And if you look at the Department of Homeland Hysteria's web page, you'll not see one single word about our dear friend in the mideastern outback. Nope. What you will see is the DHH promising goverment payola to good friends of the B*sh junta, the DHH doing a little bit of campaigning for Scalito, and other sorts of bureaucratic space-filler that's only slightly above the level of lorem ipsum.
After all, why should the DHH bother their pretty little heads about death threats from Osama? There are no US elections coming up for several months, and you don't want to roll out the new product too far in advance, because then people will get jaded and might not be quite so hysterical when they're going to the polls.
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Good post, orc. I’ll go one step further. I don’t buy these Osama tapes and pronouncements - or at least, I don’t think they originate with OBL. I think the US plays the Osama card when it’s convenient for them, threading a fine line between “let’s all remember, there’s a threat out there, The War On Terror is endless” and reminders that the big bad guy hasn’t been caught.
Think about how OBL is used in US propaganda - it’s exactly how the threat of Communism used to be used. That bogeyman doesn’t exist anymore, so they had to make up a new one.
Hmmm. Just as Reagan did a back-door deal with the Mad Mullahs to get elected in 1980, one could imagine the current White House denizens would not be beyond cutting a deal to keep OBL as a vague menace and ensure their electability; it might even be a symbiotic relationship as Osama gets rid of bothersome underlings by sending them to a dinner featuring Hellfire missiles.
I didn’t see this when I posted my comment. I think this is very much on point. I couldn’t pretend to know the nuts and bolts of it, but I do think they’re working for the same purpose.
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Osama is gaming US politics like a pro; you gotta give it to the guy for knowing which buttons to push and when. He needs Shrub and a Republican congress to do Dumb Things, and he knows how to get the voters to dance, puppets, dance! Check out his 2004 message - a bit of booga-booga a few days before the election, just enough to remind folks “there’s a bear out there (tm Reagan 1984)”, and the trick is done. This one is prep work for the 2006 midterms, and he’ll likely plan an October Surprise to ensure there’s not a chance of non-Wah-On-Terra pols getting in and wrecking his plans for Armed Insurrection in the middle East.
Hmmm. Just as Reagan did a back-door deal with the Mad Mullahs to get elected in 1980, one could imagine the current White House denizens would not be beyond cutting a deal to keep OBL as a vague menace and ensure their electability; it might even be a symbiotic relationship as Osama gets rid of bothersome underlings by sending them to a dinner featuring Hellfire missiles.