Get ’em!
John McCain taunted Barack Obama Friday for his recent “endorsement†from a Hamas adviser, wearing his own apparent rejection by the terrorist group as a badge of honor and saying that if elected he would be “Hamas’ worst nightmare.â€
McCain spoke openly about the touchy subject on a conference call with bloggers Friday morning, even as he was fighting with a local Republican Party to take down an ad critical of Obama that he said was harmful to the “respectful†spirit of the race.
“I think it is very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States … I think that the people should understand that I will be Hamas’ worst nightmare,†McCain said when asked about the group’s recent statements about Obama. (snip)
“I never expect for the leader of Hamas … to say that he wants me as president of the United States,†McCain said. “I think it is very clear … why they would not want me to be president of the United States, so if Sen. Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly.â€
I was supposed to be on that conference call, but, Real Life, in the form of a company conference call, interfered.
Face it, the anti-American forces out there would prefer Obama. So far, he hasn’t given us a statement on how he would fight a kindler, gentler war on terror, but, for the most part, he has stayed away from even talking about the war on Islamic terrorism. Partly, I’m sure, because his base thinks it is phony, that 9/11 was an inside job, and they’re no nothing idiots who faint at his rallies. The other part is that Obama is a neophyte who knows little about the issue himself.
One of the main jobs of the President, and the federal government, is to protect the People of the USA from enemies, both foreign and domestic. Not fake enemies like global warming, but real ones like the terrorists who have attack America and American interests and people many times, and have told us it is war. No one really has the full knowledge to be “The Man” when stepping in to the White House, but John McCain is light years ahead of Obama. Put in military terms, Obama might, I repeat, might be considered a Private 1st Class (surely he has heard some intel at some point), while McCain is a Lieutenant General, very, very close.
Obama has made it clear that if he wins he will stop the phony war on terror and get back to the real war on terror that is going on in Afganistan. Indeed, he stated that if Pakistan wouldn’t do something about Al Qaida sanctuaries in their country, as President, he would.
He then got roundly criticized for attacking a so called ally in the war on terror. Of course, he didn’t get attacked by people in the Bush administration because a few days later, the USA dropped bombs on camps in Pakistan.
You may not of heard about all this, because Obama is absolutely NOT the choice of the American corporations, and since the corporations tend to control our media, you tend to get what they want you to hear. And what they want you to hear is pro McCain, and second choice, pro Hillary.
And the cold war demonstrated that the absolute by far successful way to avoid war with your sworn enemy is conversation with your enemy, not armed conflict. But conversation conflicts with the profit potential of armed conflict, so guess what the corporations prefer?
The USA spends more on military that every other country on the planet combined. This is why countries like Japan and in the EU are moving much faster into the future than the USA is. Tokyo is building a gigantic undergroud subway system while our billions are going to billionaries and our kids or used as corporate cannon fodder.
As a liberal, I want the USA to succeed as a world power, and the only candidate remotely capable of fostering that in the current world climate is Barack.
So, if you want to promote Corporate International success (not even just American Corporate success), stay duped and vote Republican, but if you prefer American success for the American people, you have to through out the Republicans, and that includes the Republican lite candididate, Hillary.
Teach why is it that the smaller weaker countries are not as afraid of the muslims as we are ? Why is it that say Ireland or Norway or Panama have not the fear that the USA has ?
John Ryan,
According to the terrorists, they attacked us because of our bases in Saudi Arabia. “Because they hate our freedoms” is for the easily duped. Ireland and Norway and Panama don’t have bases in Saudi Arabia and they don’t have a corporate media that help with the duping of Americans and and they don’t have experts in the playing of the “fear” card. That’s why those is smaller countries aren’t living in fear.
Sorry for the misspellings in my post above, I was in a hurry for an appointment.
Interesting post, Pirate.
I don’t think “terrorist” are a more real enemy than “global warming.”
Teach, how come right-wing neocon patriots are the ONLY ones that have READ the February 1998 fatwa written by Osama bin Laden and published in Europe titled “Jihad Against Crusaders, Jews and Allies?” This decree said to “…kill all military personnel and their civilians, unless the infidels depart from Saudi Arabia, convert to Islam and pay the tax!”
1998? Sandy ‘Stuffer’ Berger, Madeleine Albright and Bubba Clinton (and Monica) must have READ it too? 1998? Hmmmmmm !
darth,
Actually, the Fatwa against infidels predated OBL’s 1998 writings by some 1200 years. Muhammad himself required his followers to convert or kill infidels. It’s in the Koran. So even Thomas Jefferson knew about these goals as he was an avid student of world religions and had his own copy of the Koran.
So the question is not what was said or written down, but what happened between the years 560 or so and 1993 that kicked it up a notch? What was it that made these people a REAL threat? What changed such that Muslims would simply be aware of these goals for 1200 years and then go on to act on them?
2 things, the enormous wealth that made idiots like OBL millionaires, and the stationing of American troops in Saudi Arabia. 15 of the 19 terrorists on 9/11 were Saudi’s, and nearly ALL the money to subsidize that attack came from Saudi interests. And that wealth came from western oil money.
Oh, and whenever Clinton bombed Al Quida camps in the late 1990’s, he got accused of “wagging the Dog”. There is little doubt to anyone who has actually read real history, rather than the faux stuff promoted on our corporate media, that the Clinton administration took world terrorism 1000% more seriously than the Bush administration did in their first 8 months in office. Even a slightly increased paying of attention to terrorism during that crucial summer of 2001 probably would have been enough to prevent 9/11. If a President who was not as pro-corporate as this one had been so neglectful, rest assured he’d have been impeached or even arrested by now.
Mark, the thing is, should basing some troops in SA give OBL and Al Qaeda license to kill? They tried to kill 50K + on 9/11. They cut peoples heads off with knives. Slowly. They kidnap and commit real torture.
In fact, though, the modern Jihad goes back to the late 60’s and early 70’s, with the Muslim Brotherhood and the PLO, and Arafat. The Muslim hard cores realized that the Arab nations sucked at war, getting the crap kicked out of them 3 times, then a 4th in ’73 by Israel. At that point, they turned the war into terrorism, more personal, and going after civilians, and becoming a jihad, rather then an Arab thing, if you see the distinction. In just 40 years, they have become more hard core, teaching it in schools, converting around the world. And I will agree that all the money has made it worse.
But, what do we do? How do we ween ourselves off of foreign oil? The Dems will not allow drilling in ANWAR, new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coasts of NC and Ca., or in the NW USA, which has tons of oil, supposedly on the same order as the Saudi oil fields. Environmentalists blocked a transmission line from a solar plant in Ca. Ted kennedy blocks the Cape Wind Project (and got a Republican to help him.) I would love something to be done about SA. They are playing both sides, but, as long as we need their oil, what do we do?
If Clinton was so serious, he would have taken OBL the 3 times he was offered on a silver platter. And, I am still waiting for someone to explain exactly what Bush could have done. There was no hard core intel that was making it up that said exactly when the attack was going to be. Had he put in tough airline search measures, those on the left, including the ACLU, would have pitched hissy fits, especially since it would have required profiling, otherwise known as “knowing who the perps will be.”
Teach,
Surely you’re kidding me. Drilling will solve the oil need crisis? I say leave the oil in the ground until the Arabs use up their oil. Only then do we even consider getting it out of Anwar, the Gulf or anywhere else, and in the interim we spend what it takes to replace oil with an alternative.
What could Bush have done in the first 8 months? Your suggestion that had he done too much he’d of been attacked by the left is a straw man argument. What he did do was NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING!!!! His counterterrorism group met for the very first time on September 10th, 2001. THE VERY FIRST MEETING OF HIS administration on world terrorism was 8 months into his term!!!!!!
And low level FBI agents had already found out that a group of Arabs were learning how to take off and fly planes, but didn’t want to learn how to land. The local FBI thought this was suspicious, and reported it up the chain, but it did not reach the top. WHY NOT? I’ll tell you why not, because “the top” was more interested in tax cuts, SDI, Marriage Amendments and going on vacation. World terrorism was put on the back burner.
As for no hard core intelligence…., on the very last day of the Clinton administration, our intelligence people finally had the proof that OBL was behind the attack on the USS Cole. Clinton insisted on proof after the fiasco bombing that pharmaceutical plant in Africa. But because his administration was over, Clinton left the USA response to Bush. BUSH DID NOTHING!!! The USS Cole was never avenged, thanks to GWB!!!
Back in 1999, there was a lot of “chatter” amongst terrorists and Clinton ordered that his terrorism team meet every single day to discuss this chatter. During those meetings, every single little detail got discussed and was brought to “the top”. Had Bush held such meetings in the summer of 2001, instead of going on vacation, the arabs who didn’t want to learn how to land would have come up. Coupled with the increased chatter, and other evidence, this more than likely would have led to the break up of this plot. Maybe they wouldn’t have stopped all 4 planes that day, but they would likely have stopped a few of them.
Are you aware that the USA spends about 3 hours worth of the Iraqi war $ on alternative fuel research?
It’s estimated that the Iraq war will cost us about 3 trillion $. Could you imagine if we spent that kind of money on an oil alternative?
By the way, can you tell me what the war in Iraq has to do with the War on Terror? Last year, the chairman of the joint chiefs stated under oath that Al Quiada was probably involved in about 3% of the violence in Iraq. If the USA left tomorrow, within 24 hours every single foreigner, including Al Quiada will be dead. That’s right, the Iraqis hate Al Quiada just slightly less than they are starting to hate Americans.
Did you hear today that President Karzai was almost assassinated in Kabul today? Seems the Taliban are now so strong that they are now INSIDE KABUL itself. Now that’s the real front in the war on terror, and thanks to Bush, we are losing that front.
Teach, I’ve given you some American history above that you’ve probably never heard before. I’m not surprised. GW Bush has been the most corporation friendly president in modern history and the corporations control — pretty much — what you hear and see. So of course these facts are new to you.
By the way, what the heck does the abysmal behavior of Ted Kennedy have to do with the abysmal behavior of GW Bush? Why is it that right wingers need to bring him up whenever they defend GW?
Teach wrote “Mark, the thing is, should basing some troops in SA give OBL and Al Qaeda license to kill? They tried to kill 50K + on 9/11. They cut peoples heads off with knives. Slowly. They kidnap and commit real torture.”
This is the famous “You’re one of those blame America first people” phony arguments.
NEVER did I suggest that OBL had any kind of license or permission to attack the WTC. And I’m well aware of how disgusting they are. But this line of argument from the Right Wing is truly disgusting, though I know why you use it, because it tends to work on the easily duped.
I think OBL is a horrible and disgusting human being and that he and his ilk deserve death and destruction. But I also know that the best way to defeat world terror is to make people not want to join him, and to also take away their fortunes so they cannot fund wars.
(By the way, I think the only reason OBL is still alive is because just like GWBush was the best thing that ever happened to the Al Quiada movement, what with the phenomenal increases in recruitment, OBL is the best thing that ever happened to GWBush. If OBL had died years ago, it would have deflated the GWBush fear campaign. THAT’S the REAL reason OBL is still alive today.)
But Bush has done the opposite of what is needed to fight the war on terror. His fiasco in Iraq has caused Arabs from all over the world to join Al Quiada. Now pictures of OBL are on the walls in homes all across the middle east and south east asia. His Jihad is stronger than it has been in 1200 years, all thanks to GW Bush.
World terrorism is now at all time highs.
If we really want to end the Jihad movement, we need to impoverish these people by removing the value of oil. Let them go back to being beduins in the desert. They can hate us all they want, but without both financial assets, and without ever more new recruits, they will peter out in the desert.
Instead, due to Bush’s abysmal leadership, we are now even more dependent on oil for our economy, the arab nations have even more money to spend on evil plots, and the recruiting of suiciders in that part of the world has skyrocketed.
We need sanity in the White House if we ever hope to win the war on Terror, and the only one remotely with that kind of sanity currently in the race is Barack.
McCain sees war as the solution to nearly everything, and Hill will simply follow the next poll. Barack will listen to scientists and not enter into decisions with a chip on his shoulder, like boy Bush clearly did.
According to 2 members of the Bush cabinet, Bush discussed attacking Iraq numerous times prior to 9/11. Yet Al Quiada was mentioned only once. It’s been documented that GW had his eye on Saddam as far back as 1998.