What Is It With These NeoCons.....

That they think diplomacy and foreign relations are a schoolyard fight?

US wrong to sniff blood in bin Laden tape: analysts

By Caroline Drees, Security Correspondent Fri Jan 20, 3:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House officials listening to Osama bin Laden's latest tape heard a weakened man on the run, but other U.S. officials and analysts heard a dangerous leader rallying his troops, mocking the United States and possibly setting up another attack.

The audiotape -- the first one from the al Qaeda leader since December 2004 -- said the militant network was preparing attacks in the United States but was open to a truce with Americans, linked to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

As soon as the tape aired on Thursday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said it proved al Qaeda leaders were fugitives under the gun and Vice President Dick Cheney said bin Laden appeared to be in deep hiding with difficulties getting messages out.

But some counterterrorism officials and analysts say this assessment from the White House is off the mark and fails to examine the benefits a savvy operator like bin Laden may derive from showing he is alive and focused on a U.S. attack.

I mean, they're practically taunting him, and you can draw a direct line between this attitude of McClellan and Cheney and Bush's infamous "Bring it on," to which Osama and Al-Zarqawi replied, "Oh, it's brought, beeyatch!"

One might point out the self-referential irony of Mr. "Undisclosed Location" Cheney mocking bin Laden for needing to go into deep cover, however, if anyone knows about being "under the gun," surely it's McClellan.

This entire South Asian debacle is very reminiscent of boys playing with toy soldiers, complete with the mouth noises, "Perkow! Blooosh! Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah.....nnnnnnnrrrrrrrowKABOOM!" and for all the bluster and bravado, Osama bin Laden comes off as the more dignified and intelligent warrior.

This is one area that I should think the Bush administration would WANT the bin Laden tapes to be aired in their entirety with translation, because let's face facts: the parts they DON'T describe on TV or in the papers are probably the parts that bin Laden reveals his diabolical insanity, and maybe we ought to see the administration's reaction in context. Perhaps then he won't be such an enormous embarassment to us.

snarkasm, snarcasm, snarky, Bush, bin Laden, Al Qaeda, terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan