Bin Laden steals Kos kids talking points

NY Times:

A videotaped message by Osama bin Laden, the first in nearly three years, compares the Iraq war to American blunders in Vietnam, criticizes the Democratic Party for failing to pull American troops from Iraq, and urges Americans to embrace Islam.

Details of the video emerged yesterday, the same day that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency gave a public warning about Al Qaeda’s gathering strength and unapologetically defended his agency’s campaign to kill and capture the group’s operatives worldwide.

The video, timed to the approaching sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, shows the leader of Al Qaeda with a black beard, and his references to news events appear to date the tape to within the past few months.

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This story does not get into the details of the speech, focusing more on the threat as described by Gen. Hayden. But the Chomskey loving terrorist appeared to be stealing the intellectual property of the Daily Kos web site with its criticism of the Bush administration and Democrats who have not managed to force a loss of the war in Iraq on his and their schedule which appears to call for a similar pace of defeat.

The Belmont Club has a link to the message as well as interesting comments on the message. See also this editorial in the NY Post entitled 'MoveOn' Osama.

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Some parts of his message, however, definitely deserve attention. For instance, he compares America's war in Iraq to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan - a conflict in which jihadists take credit for the entire collapse of the Soviet Union.

No question, then, what they think is at stake in Iraq.

The Iraq war, he says, will end in one of two ways: Either increased terrorist attacks will drive U.S. troops from the country - or America will abandon its "impotent" democracy altogether.

One might dispute his analysis, but his message is clear enough.

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For many on the left the goals are shared. John Gibson does a side by side comparison with a Keith Olbermann rant and a caller admits to a shared objective with Osama.

Meanwhile, James Robbins says it is not one of Osama's best works. It is a good analysis.

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It really must gall him that President Bush can fly into al-Anbar Province in Iraq, the former al Qaeda stronghold, while the only thing Osama can fly into is a rage.

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It is something else he shares with the left.

I think that if al Qaeda was really winning, Osama would not be whining about the Democrats failure to get us out of Iraq. Right now they are his only hope.