I Know Nothing! I See Nothing!
February 12th, 2003 - 8:44 am
“Osama bin Laden’s” latest — in which he pledges support for Iraq — hasn’t convinced Germany that he, you know, supports Iraq. From The Washington Post:
“From what is known so far we don’t think we can conclude that there is evidence of an axis or close link between the regime in Baghdad and al Qaeda,” a government spokesman told a news conference.
The spokesman went on to say he also saw no link between gravity and dropping things, 9/11 and the Euro-American rift, or French collaborators and Nazi death camps.
To be clear, I belive there’s a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda because: a) the government has described certain evidence of such a link, including at Colin Powell’s U.N. presentation; and b) it would make no sense for Iraq and al-Qaeda, both of who are practically defined by their opposition to the U.S., to refuse to work together.
That being said, I don’t think the tape is particuarly persuasive in proving a link. It is just as plausible that al-Qaeda, wanting above all to bring about war between Muslims and the U.S., is merely cheerleading a popular Muslim anti-U.S. cause (Note: this is supposedly a tape of Osama supporting Iraq, not the other way around). If the tape were all we had, it would make just as much sense to believe that Iraq and al-Qaeda had never been involved, but that the latter was taking advantage of Muslim sentiment regarding the former to stir up conflict.
Again, I believe there’s a connection based on the other evidence we’ve been shown. Still, for someone who wasn’t convinced already, this tape seems unlikely to change their minds.
Spoons is absolutely correct. At most, this tape proves that al Qaeda supports Hussein as against the US.
One thing the US is trying to prove (and has provided evidence) is that Hussein is helping al Qaeda. This tape gets us exactly zero traction on that question, and IMHO to try to pretend it does risks the persuasive effect of our better evidence.
It is as meaningful and helpful as asking OJ to try on the glove.
In the tape, the speaker called for the people of Iraq to rise up and kill Saddam Hussein.
I sympathize with your desire to find concrete evidence of the Administrations’ repeated claims of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda, but it just isn’t there.
Nor did the hasty re-translation of the tape halfway through the day yesterday bolster the government’s position.
Most of us have by now accepted that, unless forcibly restrained, Bush and Cheney are going to force us to go to war against Iraq, but most of us are still of the opinion that we’re doing the wrong thing.
If you think you’re pissed now, Anne, wait’ll you scroll down and read what I have to say about your German friends.
Anne,
All the polls say you’re wrong. A majority of Americans now support the war, even if we can’t get the U.N. to go along. Likewise (if irrelevantly), an overwhelming majority of European countries support us.
Who exactly do you mean by “most of us.” Etes-vous francaise?
Yes, Anne. Please do define “most of us”. You and your A.N.S.W.E.R. cohorts? Or would that be the Republican Guard you are speaking for?
It’s the silent majority that can’t possibly be counted, but we’re just positive that it’s a majority!
“In the tape, the speaker called for the people of Iraq to rise up and kill Saddam Hussein.”
This is a falsehood that has been spread by the anti-war crowd (I think it started on Raimondo’s site) like wildfire in 24 hours, because some genius at MSNBC misread the translation and they later corrected it.. He said that the governments of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and a few others should be overthrown but never said Iraq (“We also stress that Muslims have to move and incite and organize the nation into armies to face these great events and harsh conditions, and to liberate themselves from the slavery of these unjust and infidel regimes enslaved by the U.S. From among the most ready for liberation are Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria and Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.”). He specifically was talking about any Muslim country which helped the U.S. at all. That ain’t Iraq.
As Jerry Pournelle pointed out, Saddam could have repudiated the tape, but he did not. So it doesn’t matter if the tape is authentically from Bin Laden (whom I still think has been dead since Tora Bora) or Al-Qaeda in general (which I think it is). It is still a just war.
All this tape proves is that Osama would want the Iraqi’s to defeat the Americans. It is a far cry from Saddam supplying Al Qaeda WMD. Also, even the Fox News translation includes Osama calling Saddam an “infidel”. This is what it would take to convince me to go to war.