Category Archives: Osama Bin Laden

Primary Hellfire and Born Again Brimstone

Iraq War, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Luke R. E. Publican, Osama Bin Laden

In yesterday’s Super Tuesday slapdown, John McCain appears to have bailed out in his Republican quest with a majority of the party’s caucus-oid delegates. But not without friendly, which is actually unfriendly, fire from his right. At the last minute the conservative evangelical bornagainagogue James Dobson delivered his protestant version of papal bull: “I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are … I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience.” It is though Dobson in his daily bible reading, found a new translation of Matthew 16:15: “And I tell you, John McCain, on this rock I will not tell my church to vote and the gates of hell will prevail is he is elected.” Or to tell the Gospel truth, Mr. Dobson cannot see the mote in his candidate’s eye for the large walk-the-plank in his own.

Adding to the smoking cigar of Rush puffed endlessly in Big Mac’ weathered face, Super Tuesday turned into the GOP version of American Gladiators. Move over, Chuck and Arnie, here comes Hulk Hogan onstage to officiate, only without the scantily clad and pumped-up Amazon models. Here is last night’s apocalypse now. The great Latter Day Conservative from Utahssachusetts lies bloodied and hanging on to the Washington-is-broken ropes, waiting for a Good Samaritan to come along and say Mormonism is not a cult. Meanwhile, down in the holler hides the Huckabilly, who is able to have his Southern cruisin’ grits and eat them too; but likely this will be his Last Supper of the primaries and not for want of Ron Paul’s fundraising ability. On the other side, Hillary and Obama both took the Jesus-like approach of saying you should love your enemy. This time around, in not-so-swift Kerry-like fashion, the Republicans seem hellbent on electoral suicide that will holocaust the party a victory in November. Think of it this way, which pile of shit would you rather avoid: that of a donkey or an elephant?

Politics astride, you would have to be severely politically anemic not to see the irony of the moral majoritarian Dobson damning Big Mac to an undisclosed level of hell and at the same time playing up the spectre of Radical Islam’s Threat to the Western World. Continue reading Primary Hellfire and Born Again Brimstone →

To Hell with McCain?

Immigration Issues, Luke R. E. Publican, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue

As Election Super Bowl Tuesday looms, slogans are flooding the airwaves and talking heads jerking off over digital networks. With the side attraction candidates now on the newsunworthy sidelines, it is mano a mano time: Bill-supported Hillary vs. JFK-scent Obama and Admiral Big Mac vs. the Olympics-sized CEO Romney. Tomorrow will show the world just how American democracy works, the electoral college-bound Rube Goldberg contraption that allows pockets of regionally-minded voters, jerry-rigged delegate rules and a last-minute, last-ditch advertizing blitz to masquerade as political choice. Now that the warm-up Iowa Caucus and town meetings of New Hampshire have been proudly displayed as proof we are a nation of concerned voters, the two parties can break out the cigars and place the oil-profit crown on the great hope that promises to deliver the spoils to the White House in November. Politics is the media orgy of our time; we all get drunk with promises and laid on with promises. Not until after we pull the lever will we know that we can’t help puking and ending up with a hangover that lasts about four years. Most of us, so the polls tell us, are still reeling from the last time around.

There are plenty of issues to campaign about. The economy is in the recession-bound Red Zone and most economists think the stimulus packages being thrown up hail-Mary into the air will be dropped in the end. After all we have troops locked into a war that even a troop surge cannot rescue from political stalemate. Take your pick of the non-Pauline candidates, the score will be the same: less money in your wallet and more national debt for being the world’s superpower policeman. Would that we had a silly and totally irrelevant reason to pick candidates, like their stand on gay marriage. That worked like a piece of cake last time. But then that election had two white guys mud wrestling, one a war vet from the wrong color state and the other a family (Bush family that is) man who thought Jesus was the greatest philosopher of all time. Now in the semi-finals we have the kind of diversity that makes you dress for your grandmother’s funeral. The Democrats have a woman (so the opposition can’t be too sexist) and an African American (so the race card has to be hidden under the table); the Republicans have a Mormon (who is a latter day conservative saint) and a suspect conservative maverick (who is as old as Methuselah). Continue reading To Hell with McCain? →

Better Luck Next Year, Osama

Iraq War, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue

There was a time when Osama Bin Laden owned the audio and video- hungry airwaves. Each new tape brought out the usual talking heads and whetted the non-stop talking lips of the cable newstalker hosts. Could it be a fake? Does he look healthy? Where could he be? But these days the world’s number one bearded terrorist might as well be living in the Stone Age, cave or no cave for an address. Last year, may it rest in peace, Bin Laden released five new tapes, more than Beyonce and the Dixie Chicks combined (not that they would mix that well). The last message came in under the radar of the newswire at year’s end. As reported in yesterday’s The Guardian, this time the target is fellow Sunnis in Iraq who are working with the American forces. They join the Saudi regime, which Bin Laden has similarly damned as apostates headed for hell. Continue reading Better Luck Next Year, Osama →

You’ve Gotta Be Al-Qaiding Me

Algeria, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue

Pick up your morning newspaper or log on to an online news source and chances are there will be reports of suicide bombings somewhere in the Middle East (or Sri Lanka). The latest example, reported only a few hours ago, is from Algeria, as published in The Guardian:

At least 47 people, including a member of UN staff, were killed in two car bomb attacks in the Algerian capital today.

A car packed with explosives rammed into the offices of the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) in Algiers, and another was detonated outside the constitutional court.

Official estimates put the death toll at 47, but the BBC reported that the figure was over 60. A further 43 people have been injured.

The US president, George Bush, condemned the attacks as “senseless act of violence”.

The two car bombs, in upmarket areas of the capital, happened 10 minutes apart.

The first car bomb was driven into the constitutional court building in the Ben Aknoun district, killing at least 30 people. The official Algerian news agency reported that several of the victims were students who had been travelling on a school bus.

Ten minutes later, the second car bomb was driven into the UNHCR, in the Hydra district, killing at least 15.

Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman, said the member of staff who died had been working in the office of the UN development programme, which is across the road from the UNHCR building and was also damaged in the blast.

More of the same, you might think. The story could as easily have been about Iraq or Afghanistan or Israel or fill in the increasing number of blanks. So why is all this happening, as if the pragmatic reasons are not painfully obvious? More of the same again. The media, echoing the Bush administration, has a suspect. Continue reading You’ve Gotta Be Al-Qaiding Me →

Dying to Win

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Books You Should Read, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue

By Robert A. Pape,
Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
[Excerpt from Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism by Robert A. Pape (New York: Random House, 2005, pp. 1-2, 5-7).]

Suicide terrorism is rising around the world, but there is a great confusion as to why. Since many such attacks—including, of course, those of Septemper 11, 2001—have been perpetrated by Muslim terrorists professing religious motives, it might seem obvious that Islamic fundamentalism is the central cause. This presumption has fueled the belief that future 9/11’s can be avoided only by a wholesale transformation of Muslim societies, a core reason for broad public support in the United States for the recent conquest of Iraq.

However, the presumed connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism is misleading and may be encouraging domestic and foreign policies likely to worsen America’s situation and harm many Muslims needlessly. Continue reading Dying to Win →

Image Wars and Westernization

Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue

[On the sixth anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, it is worthwhile revisiting comments made soon after the event. The following is an excerpt from a commentary by Michael Sells, reflecting on events before Afghanistan was invaded and Iraq was occupied. His full reflections are available by clicking here.]

I’m been giving talks on the various components behind the current situation. Today’s rumination is sparked by an 8th grader question at a forum I was giving: “why can’t we find Bin Laden if he’s always on TV.” The question knocked me out. The 8th grader had hit upon a core problem.

Bin Laden is a guy living with the Taliban who have banned all images (except for identity card photos), blown up ancient Buddha’s, but who invite Western camera crews in to make videos of them themselves smashing TV’s, tearing up video and audio cassette film, and stomping on photographs. At the same time they encourage Bin Laden to make regular videos of himself to be shown throughout the world on a regular basis. And they invite Western media in to photography and image both Bin Laden and their ritual destruction of images and media. Continue reading Image Wars and Westernization →

Bin Laden: Another Sequel

Iraq War, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue

Probably the last pre-October surprise that President Bush wanted as we approach the sixth anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11 is a new videotape from Osama Bin Laden. The bearded man who still appears on the White House “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster has defied attempts to find him and bring him to justice. Billions of dollars and far too many sacrificed American, Iraqi and Afghan lives later, the icon of those who despise American foreign policy in the Middle East will not disappear. Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Rove have been jettisoned to the neocon mash potato lecture circuit, but the lame duck president may very well leave office while Osama is still sitting in front of the cameras. What does a man like Osama think about in exile? Continue reading Bin Laden: Another Sequel →

Revenue Sharing, but not Drug-free

Afghanistan, Luke R. E. Publican, Osama Bin Laden, Taliban, Terrorism Issue


[The American plan to convince Afghan farmers not to grow poppies: some good old cow dung smothered in politically expedient B.S. Photo from the New York Times.]

In the old days (before 9/11, the posters for Osama dead or alive, the seeming fall of the Taliban, Operation Shock and Awe, etc.) before terrorism merited an all-out war, there were more socially-minded wars on the American political scene. An earlier Texan (so early he was Democratic) named Lyndon Johnson started a War on Poverty. The wealth of Bill Gates shows how well that succeeded. Then Betty Ford helped launch a War on Drugs. Casualty figures for this have been withheld by the government for insecurity reasons. Indeed, today’s New York Times has an article that suggests the War on Drugs has fused with the War on Terrorism and we are losing on both fronts. “Afghanistan produced record levels of opium in 2007 for the second straight year, led by a staggering 45 percent increase in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a new United Nations survey to be released Monday.” writes David Rohde in his article “Taliban Raise Poppy Production to a Record Again.” He adds, “Here in Helmand, the breadth of the poppy trade is staggering. A sparsely populated desert province twice the size of Maryland, Helmand produces more narcotics than any country on earth, including Myanmar, Morocco and Colombia. Rampant poverty, corruption among local officials, a Taliban resurgence and spreading lawlessness have turned the province into a narcotics juggernaut.” Continue reading Revenue Sharing, but not Drug-free →