I know I’m late with this but I was away last week and didn’t get to see the bin Laden speech to America.

I’ve been catching up on my email reading and found this issue of the Omega Letter by Jack Kinsella to be an interesting read.

With much advance fanfare, world’s most wanted man resurfaced via videotape, fit, (and fat), and sporting an obviously fake beard. In the video, he looks more like one of the Smith Brothers (of the cough drop box fame) than Osama bin Laden.

Transcripts of his rambing, thirty minute speech have already been vetted by the government and released to the public. According to voice analysis, the beard might be fake, but the voice is Osama’s.

The video calls into question if he is even still in the region. Until now, authorities have been looking for a tall, gaunt Saudi fighter wearing a long beard among a population of gaunt Arab fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If Osama shaved off his beard, shed the robes and combat fatigues for a sweater and jeans, he could walk down a main street in Brooklyn without attracting notice.

Judging from his condition, the persistent rumors of his imminent death from kidney disease are pretty much dashed. And Osama, now fifty years old, doesn’t look like he’s seen the inside of a cave for years.

Counterterror and intelligence officials confirmed it was bin Laden on the tape, which they said appears to have been recently made. Bin Laden mentions the Aug. 6th sixty-second anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. By itself, that proves nothing about when the video was made.

But Osama also mentions British Prime Minister Gordon Brown among leaders of the West with a “flagrant disregard for the intellects of human beings.” That inclusion dates the video sometime after June 27, when Brown became PM. Taken together with the reference to Hiroshima, it suggests sometime after August 6th.

Osama specifically expresses disappointment in his erstwhile allies, the Democrats — for whom Osama stumped in October, 2004 by endorsing John Kerry) — for failing to force a withdrawal from Iraq.

“Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven’t made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there, which has led to the vast majority of you being afflicted with disappointment.”

Osama’s speech is addressed to the American people, but it is clear that his intended audience was exclusively the American Left. “People of America: the world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq, for people have recently come to know that, after several years of tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped.”

He hit all the ‘hot buttons’ that stir them; Vietnam, corporate greed, hinted at the reemergence of the 1960’s “Military-Industrial Complex” and even took pains to deny involvement in the Kennedy assassination so as to not further alienate his perceived allies.

Osama even singled out Noam Chomsky, one of America’s most prominent Marxists and iconic thinker of the American Far Left, calling him “the most capable of those from your own side.”

“And I tell you: after the failure of your representatives in the Democratic Party to implement your desire to stop the war, you can still carry anti-war placards and spread out in the streets of major cities, then go back to your homes, but that will be of no use and will lead to the prolonging of the war.”

Osama is very specific here; “your representatives in the Democratic Party” and, “your desire to stop the war. . .” — it doesn’t leave much doubt as to where Osama believes he’ll find a sympathetic ear, does it?

Having carefully and specifically identified his intended audience, Osama launches into a tirade against the Republicans that could have been scripted by Nancy Pelosi’s scriptwriter:

“And with that, it has become clear to all that they are the real tyrannical terrorists. In fact, the life of all of mankind is in danger because of the global warming resulting to a large degree from the emissions of the factories of the major corporations, yet despite that, the representative of these corporations in the White House insists on not observing the Kyoto accord, with the knowledge that the statistic speaks of the death and displacement of the millions of human beings because of that, especially in Africa. This greatest of plagues and most dangerous of threats to the lives of humans is taking place in an accelerating fashion as the world is being dominated by the democratic system, which confirms its massive failure to protect humans and their interests from the greed and avarice of the major corporations and their representatives.”

Then, still speaking to those Americans ‘whose Democratic representatives failed to stop the war’, Osama offers them one more chance to surrender or die.

“However, there are two solutions for stopping it [the war]. The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out, and I ask Allah to grant them resolve and victory. And the second solution is from your side. . . I invite you to embrace Islam . . . ”

Osama goes on to say, “embracing Islam will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and begun to search for an alternative, and that this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam.”
(So you don’t really have to believe it — you can just use Islam as a tool to get what you want politically.)

And wait. . . there’s more! Low taxes!
“There are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms] totaling only 2.5%. So beware of the deception of those with the capital. . .”, meaning, of course, the Republicans.

Assessment:

As already noted, anybody with a brain the size of a walnut can see that Osama views as his strong suit in his war against America — the Democrats in general and the American Left in particular.

It has been the Democrats’ practice to continually bring up analogies to Vietnam. Continuing the analogies, Osama is simply using the same tactics that resulted in Saigon being renamed Ho Chi Minh City three decades ago.

Uncle Ho learned it from Josef Stalin, who learned it from Vladimir Lenin. Referring to those in the West who denied the existence of the Communist police state, Lenin called them “useful idiots,” noting that the “capitalist dupes will sell us the rope with which to hang them.”

Osama is just tapping into his “Useful Idiot” tool box.
What is remarkable to me is the way that the mainstream press is reporting the story. Sean Hannity was blistered by them for saying Osama sounds just like the Democrats.

Thundered the website “Newshounds” (slogan: “We watch Fox News so you don’t have to”):

“Perhaps at a loss as to how to spin the new video of Osama Bin Laden in favor of President Bush, Sean Hannity decided he’d use it to attack his fellow Americans. The self-styled “Great American” proved just what kind of patriot and freedom lover he truly is by twice likening Democrats to Osama bin Laden.”

Asks Newshounds, “Is there any partisanship more despicable?”
(Actually, yes. The kind of blind partisanship that would find Sean Hannity more despicable than Osama bin Laden)

It isn’t partisan to say Osama sounds like the Democrats — which is what Hannity said — IF Osama sounds like the Democrats. It would only be partisan to say that if he didn’t.
But not only does Osama sound like he’s reading from the DNC’s talking points, he makes a point of addressing the Democrats by name!

Following Osama’s description of “their side” to the letter, the Democrats immediately reacted to Osama’s speech by attacking the “other side” — not Osama bin Laden, but George Bush.
Senator Robert Menendez said bin Laden was “out there and breathing easy, in a safe haven, and helping direct global attacks” because the US military is distracted by Iraq.

(Osama: “This war was entirely unnecessary, as testified to by your own reports.”)
“Not only is Osama bin Laden at large and back in business, but the Department of Homeland Security continues to receive failing grades.”

(Osama: America’s “prestige was broken globally and it was bled dry economically.”)
Fellow Democratic senator Bob Casey said the Iraq war was a ‘digression’ from the hunt for bin Laden. “Having to police a civil war is drawing resources from that effort,” he said.

(Osama: “Then Bush talks about his working with al-Maliki and his government to spread freedom in Iraq but he in fact is working with the leaders of one sect against another sect, in the belief that this will quickly decide the war in his favor. And thus, what is called the civil war came into being and matters worsened at his hands. . “)

Frankly, I think Hannity got it exactly backwards. Osama doesn’t sound like the Democrats. It’s the Democrats that sound like bin-Laden.