What if Bin Laden released a new video...?

Question

and stated "There is no way we can win this war against the US. We need to return to our goat farms, there is no way we can defeat the most powerful army in the world."
What kind of effect would that have on his Jihadist followers?
What would that do for the morale of a would-be suicide bomber?
What kind of effect would that have on the US public support for the war against terror?
Now imagine the roles being reversed, a US Senator, (who shall remain nameless), proclaiming we are destined to fail and that we need to retreat.

How can we break the resolve of a weaker enemy when they are constantly emboldened by the remarks of our defeatist leadership? Isn't in the best interest of our country to succeed in this struggle?

Answer 1

Let me preface my remarks by saying that I hope any Bin Laden video features a scantily clad Cher, straddling the huge guns of a U.S. warship, as she did in "If I Could Turn Back Time." (I'll bet Bin Laden himself would gladly break a few verses of the Koran to hear a few verses of that video).

Now, back to business...

The worst offense the Libs make is their tacit alliance with terrorists. In a letter from Al-Zarkawi to his followers, the master terrorist implored his followers to hang on just a little longer. Although their cause seemed hopeless against such overwhelming firepower and determination from the U.S., inevitably stupid, naive "anti-war" demonstrators would derail support for continued military support of the Iraqi government, and the insurgents would win by default.

Now, think about this: Liberals read the Al Zarkawi letter. The letter plainly states the only way the insurgents can win is if stupid people protest the war; otherwise, they will not be able to prevail. The only reason the insurgency can get new recruits is that our vacillation gives them hope. New terrorists are recruited because they realize that any month now, the naive Liberals will start cutting funding for the American troops.

It's absolutely inexplicable. How can Liberals be so stupid?

Here's another way of looking at the situation: Imagine you are dumped in the middle of the ocean, and there's no land in sight. You have no idea where you are, you're scared, disoriented, and after what seems like endless days of seemingly pointless, exhausting effort, you just give up, and the sea claims yet another body. There is no point in fighting it, you know you are going to drown anyway.

In the second scenario, someone dumps you in the ocean, but your tormentors tell you that fishing boats cruise those waters every Monday and Thursday. Now you have a target to live for. You gather all your strength and focus your energy. You know you can survive until help arrives.

Did any Liberals reading this realize this is exactly what they are doing for the benefit of the terrorists? By announcing a date they can circle on their grimy Jihadist calendar, you are giving them exactly the kind of hope they need to keep getting new recruits.

Liberal idiocy is life-threatening. Too bad it's directed at the wrong people.

Answer 2

Most Iraqis have more education than the average American citizen for starters. American men are not getting into technical field as in the past, for this reason there are so many Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs, Africans in the top Engineering schools in this country. There are over one million Americans in prison, more than any nation (including Russia). You whine and whine but American men and women are not as competitive. The government makes it nearly impossible for the masses to get a decent education without going bankrupt. But that’s another issue.

You are obviously very young and uninformed. Iraq was the cradle of civilization, but the problem is that you are not taught anything in school of substance when it comes to history- so keep thinking that you rule the world. Iraq was a civilized nation with much art, technology, literature etc... before there was an America.

How can you toot your horn about our Army being the biggest and baddest in the world when these so called "goat farmers" are causing many Americans to go home maimed and psychologically ill. Many vets are coming home committing suicide. Because of this war, over 600,000 civilians have been slaughtered. (John Hopkins 2006 study).

If we were doing such a good job against what you called goat farmers, then why did the most powerful army in the world have to send in more troops? You are of the same mind set who belives that the shock and awe campaign would scare the Muslim people but you were wrong. Muslims are more most fierce fighters in the world. They don’t even have ½ the technology as this country yet they are still fighting after 5 years. Think about how this war would fare had the Iraqis possessed the same amount of technology and resources. These people have every right to defend their land. When an imperialist fake democratic nation comes to invade your land talking about democracy, while they kidnap, torture, humiliate and rape your women, that nation has every right to defend themselves. God is not on the side with oppressors and invaders. Yes Saddam was a dictator but so was that son of a Bush.

There is no such thing as "jihadist followers." Jihad is not a religion. The suicide bomber doesn’t listen to Fox or CNN just as the Kamikaze bombers didn’t listen to CBS or ABC. The fighting will never end until America leaves.
About your “embolden the enemy” statement. Iraqis and Muslims were emboldened the minute the U.S. and the British…occupied their land. They have less democracy now than when Saddam was in power. The Iraqis leadership has to ask for permission for every move they make, and yet are blamed when the mission fails. The current Iraqi government will be replaced with another pulpit government and you call that democracy and freedom? The military generals are now saying that a dictatorship wasn’t bad after all.

About Bin Laden. If Bin Laden were alive, he would have produced tons of videos by now. It would have been to his advantage to do so. This government thinks the American people are so dumb that they release old fake Bin Laden videos and people like you eat it up.

Answer 3

They would think the video was a fake, and they'd continue with their plans. Even if they believed bin Laden was throwing in the towel, they'd still fight their jihad. Al Qaeda and Islamic extremists no longer follow just one leader.

Many US senators now want out of Iraq including some Republicans. No, it's not good for the troops' morale, but it's a realistic view. A political solution, a reconciliation among the factions and a strong government are needed. The military can only keep order temporarily. The sad fact is that the Iraqis have made no progress toward a political solution, and they don't even appear to be trying very hard. So the question becomes should our troops be fighting and dying there. It's not really an issue of Democrats vs. Republicans. It's a question of whether the US can force the Iraqis to unify and maintain order.

Answer 4

Your question would seem to assume that we are fighting the "terrorists" in Iraq. We aren't. We might have been fighting them in Afghanistan, but we reduced our forces there to a token level to focus on Iraq.

In Iraq, we are trying to combat an internal struggle that lay dormant for years under an oppressive dictatorship. Who do we attack? How do you win against an unidentifiable enemy? How do we ensure that whoever we leave in charge will not exterminate their political/cultural adversaries?

The idea of "winning" assumes that a military solution is possible--it isn't. At best, we might be able to get the Iraqi government functional, but even that seems to be nigh-impossible since they don't seem interested in some kind of "shared" government. What do you suggest, that we stay and mediate the Sunni/Shiite conflict for the next ten years?

Let's put it this way: How long are you willing to stay engaged there to achieve "victory"? How much debt should we accumulate? How many lives should we spend?

It's too easy to say we should stay "until the job is done." What if we were to come to the realization that it will simply be economically and humanistically impossible to do that?

Answer 5

After 9/11 I read the koran to see what it really teaches. It made me determined to do what I can to help America win this war against a barbaric enemy that would destroy our entire civilization because their imitation of God has ordered them to do so according to a book that was said to be the memories of a man who said voices spoke to him in a cave where there were no witnesses, a book that differs in many important ways from what God had said to others before.
Liberals do not realize the threat islamofascists pose to civilization and are standing in the way of those who defend our freedoms. It should have already happened. It should have been obvious by now to them, but liberals must wake up and smell the jihad.

Answer 6

Most of your enemy combatants can't read English, pretty much don't give a damn what some senator or even the President says as compared to what their imams say and would strap on a bomb and kill himself to show us that.
That bears no relationship to what we think of as normal.
If Bin Ladin released such a video then his followers would think he had been hit on the head and go about their plans anyway. Or one of the other thirty or so lesser known terrorist organizations would take its place.
They aren't emboldened, they aren't kept in their place either by our 'resolve to fight' they want to take over the world, and they aren't smart enough to even understand how big the world is and how puny they are now.

Answer 7

if bin laden releases another video it will probably be in august or September in 2008....

and it will probably advise all of his followers that victory is near since the republicans are destined to lose the presidency in 08

but I'm sure that that will just be a fortuitous coincidence for Bush Co. right?

Answer 8

How does this even affect my life? There have been terrorists for centuries. They got one good attack in, and all of a sudden, everyone wants to change the Constitution, spend billions of dollars 'beefing up' security, and hide in thier basement.

Get a little courage. There aren't any enemies out there that can bring down the U.S. The media just loves to jump all over this 'terrorism' thing, but it's a joke. You can't beat terrorism. That's why they call it 'terrorism'. It's a few nutcases trying to stir up trouble. Quit feeding into it.

Answer 9

Yay!

USA!USA!

Talk about the Dick Cheney-like jingoism.

But yes,I agree,Bush is a defeatist.Why else would he get us into a war in a country that we had no business to invade,in the process making enemies of billions of people?The only possible answer is George Bush hates America.

Answer 10

Then Osama's troops and cadre, They will actually feel the same way WE do in the field, when Harry Reid says we already lost the war, or when democrat senators say it would be bad for democrats if we succeed in Iraq.