I actually think there is some reason to worry that there will be a terrorist attack between now and the election. Not because the government says so, of course. They haven’t got a clue. But because from the perspective of bin Laden and co., it makes sense.
I actually think there is some reason to worry that there will be a terrorist attack between now and the election. Not because the government says so, of course. They haven’t got a clue. But because from the perspective of bin Laden and co., it makes sense.
Suppose you want to destabilize the mideast and surrounding areas as well, through Pakistan and well into Asia and Africa in ways that promote fundamentalist groups more or less like the Taliban into greater influence and in time even state power. How do you do that?
Well, the first blow was 9/11. Provoke the U.S. into actions that will polarize support for the groups you want to elevate. Bin Laden and co. didn’t care about the human carnage in NYC. They didn’t even care about the carnage among their own constituents, in Afghanistan and Iraq. They had an agenda and they pursued it. They are vile but far from dumb. In fact, if you look at the trends throughout the region, a good case can be made that this strategy has had pretty significant success, given its horrible priorities.
So now what? What’s next?
Well, you most certainly want to maintain the U.S. trend toward ever increasing interventionist methodology, toward militarist excess, toward religious rhetoric, etc. You want more Bush, an even brasher Bush. You want Bush empowered, Bush ready, willing, and able to go for broke.
You, if you are bin Laden, don’t give a damn that Bush empowered will unravel a century of social programs within the U.S. You don’t case that he will strengthen a police state mentality in the U.S. and unfurl god awful violence abroad, while trampling prospects for environmental sanity. That’s all irrelevant to you – or, more accurately, it’s part of your plot, because you just want Bush to win and win big in the election. After that, the increased bellicosity and violence organizing your agenda in the part of the world you seek to affect will take care of itself. The republonuts are entirely reliable on that score.
So what do you do? Attack.
Rally the U.S. around its president. Piss off the American people, Scare them, agitate them. Do to Americans what you want Bush to do to people throughout a good part of the rest of the world. Polarize Americans toward nationalist paranoia.
So, yes, I think maybe there is a reason to worry…not only about an attack, but, much more so, about the aftermath. Will media have the courage to spin an attack in a manner to produce reason and sober reassessment by a chastened and hamstrung Kerry regime? Are elites sufficiently worried about Bush excesses to battle to prevent his enthronement?
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