Daily Kos

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  •  Many thanks (4.00 / 34)

    to you and all the other people who got this onto the Recommended list. I was just checking to see whether it had scrolled out of visibility when I noticed the promotion.

    by Pericles on Tue Nov 09, 2004 at 10:04:47 PM PDT

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    •  Absolutely outstanding diary . (none / 0)

      I remember a CIA agent, commenting on the impending war in Afghanistan, said that if Bin Laden didn't exist, we'd invent him.

      I wish every thinking American could read this.  
      Thank you

       

      Small varmints, if you will.

      by 2lucky on Tue Nov 09, 2004 at 10:54:12 PM PDT

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      •  Just like (none / 0)

        Emmanuel Goldstein in 1984

        Isn't a centrist just someone who doesn't have the balls to be a fanatic? -- Stephen Colbert

        by Muboshgu on Tue Nov 09, 2004 at 11:00:54 PM PDT

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      •  instead (none / 0)

        Instead we got Zarqawi.

        ..Talk about an orwellian Omni Present Orchestrator of Evil...

        --
        Hongpong.com- Getting that special Babylon feeling

        by HongPong on Tue Nov 09, 2004 at 11:52:55 PM PDT

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        •  Him, I think we made up. (none / 0)

          But he sure is magical: first killed, then merely maimed with the loss of leg, and then WHOA, he's whole, and he's beheadin'

          Sorry, I'm very cynical about the amazing Al-Zarqawi.  Seems like we've got a whole bunch of terrorists who've morphed into Saddam.  I mean Al Zarqawi.  
          The point is, we can fight them here or there.  Love how late in the game that rationale came up.  Makes me long for the mushroom-cloud- threatenin' days.  It was all so clear then.

          Small varmints, if you will.

          by 2lucky on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 01:23:48 AM PDT

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          •  You left out one thing (none / 0)

            We have to remember that the Pentagon presented the WH with three separate plans to kills Zarqawi before the war and the WH said no.

            As far as I'm concerned, Condi Rice as good as beheaded hostages herself.

            Qui faciant leges ubi sola pecunia regnat? -- Petronius

            by Karl the Idiot on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 06:32:34 AM PDT

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            •  B word (none / 1)

              Things that are critical to our understanding are the low tech lessons of Viet Nam and 9/11.  It does not take a ton of money, top scientists or intricate planning to inflict mass casualties. It doesn't take repeated mass casualty to create fear. To feed a fear frenzy, there is no need to pull off another - quoting the terrorists here - "spectacular" event.  

              So, onto the mythical proportions of Zarqawi, the beheader.  Thanks to us, he owns the beheading brand.  Any beheading, Zarqawi's behind it.  Beheading is very low tech and yet very fear inspiring.  Put those together... well, you see where I'm going.

              With the terror level flames fanned, especially pre-election, I believe it will take very little in this country for all out panic and terrorist in every pot hole mentality.  

              by debraz on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 09:01:38 AM PDT

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              •  A Beheading on American Soil (none / 1)

                Would be just as effective as another 9/11. Imagine a series of kidnappings and televised beheadings right here in our back yard. Easy to accomplish, brutally effective.

                Our children will go to bed with nightmares about the beheading boogeyman.

                They allow themselves to be caught with documents implicating a Syrian or Iran connection.

                Meanderthal

                by lobbygow on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 11:16:45 AM PDT

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          •  Al-Zarqawi might not exist (none / 0)

            Both sides have an interest in blaming all the violence in Iraq on him. Bush needs an enemy, but the fundamentalists also need a leader. I think this is why there are so many video tapes of him committing attrocities where we never see his face.

            by cybo on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 07:51:17 AM PDT

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        •  The Scarlet Zarqawi (none / 1)

          They seek him here, they seek him there.
          The US seeks him everywhere.
          Is he in heaven, or in hell,
          That damned elusive Zarqawi-Al?

          Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances. -The Histories of Herodotus, Book 7, Ch. 49

          by Louise on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 06:12:43 AM PDT

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          •  Rewrite of your little poem (none / 0)

            Maybe better put:

            They seek him here, they seek him there.
            Those yankees seek him everywhere.
            In heaven, or hell, oh, where is he?
            That damned elusive Zarqawi?

            But you know that Al-Zarqawi is really Satan, don't you? You've got to have a really, really big enemy to keep the tension high. Else the sheep will start to notice that they're being shorn.

            Ed

            I do not belong to an organized political party -- I'm a Democrat. [Will Rogers]

            by Ed Drone on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 08:56:37 AM PDT

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      •  This was Michael Moore's thesis (none / 0)

        in Fahrenheit 9/11, too-- that bin Laden was "invented" to help Bush get his mojo back.

        by concernedamerican on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 04:25:17 AM PDT

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        •  Got your mojo back (none / 0)

          Remember:  In the wake of that bombing, Bush stated on the campaign trail: "I hope that we can gather enough intelligence to figure out who did the act and take the necessary action... there must be a consequence."[Washington Post, 1/20/02]

          Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz later complains that by the time the new administration is in place, the Cole bombing was "stale." Defense Secretary Rumsfeld also states too much time had passed to respond. [9/11 Commission Report, 3/24/04 (B)]

          by debraz on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 09:10:05 AM PDT

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      •  uh, like, they can. (4.00 / 4)

        you just have to email it to them.

        you know, there ought to be a "email this to a friend" button on stories here. it'd be a good thing.

        to dispel any previous confusion arising from the sig before this,
        i'd like to reaffirm that this account is indeed dedicated to justice.

        by Tacoma Narrows on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 05:04:45 AM PDT

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      •  I'm sending this (none / 0)

        to everyone on my email list.  Excellent diary!  

        "So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy." ~Roger Baldwin

        by spyral on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 05:57:01 AM PDT

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    •  Great post (3.91 / 12)

      This line:

      However, we need not respond with overwhelming force that kills the innocent and guilty alike. It is important that we husband and cultivate the moral capital that an attack will give us, not spend it all (and then some) in an over-reaching reprisal. This was the mistake Bush made in Iraq.

      What is so difficult to understand about this that even a supposedly brilliant and knowledgable chap like Thomas Friedman fails to comprehend.

      A parable for children:

      On September 11, some angry bees flew over and stung us real bad. So with little foresight George went over there and started batting the hive with a big stick. Now angry bees are flying around everywhere.

      At a level even George can understand.

      by TocqueDeville on Tue Nov 09, 2004 at 11:10:14 PM PDT

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    •  Great post, however... (none / 0)

      This will NEVER happen in today's environment:

      "However, we need not respond with overwhelming force that kills the innocent and guilty alike. It is important that we husband and cultivate the moral capital that an attack will give us, not spend it all (and then some) in an over-reaching reprisal."

      We get attacked again, we're responding with overwhelming force somewhere, unfortunately.

      by SteveLCo on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 04:52:01 AM PDT

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    •  One regret. . . (none / 1)


       That this was not put on kos' front page around mid-September, then picked up and memed like hell all over the SCLM.

       This analysis is spot on and shows more insight (and plain old common sense) then all President Stupids' advisers, the CIA, and the Media Whore "analysists" put together.

       A thousand "4s" for you if I could.

       BenGoshi
      _________________

      "We in the gloam, old buddy," he said, "We definitely right in the middle of it." -Larry Brown

      by BenGoshi on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 06:11:29 AM PDT

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