Betrayed, Part Two!
One of the challenges that will face Barack Obama, sooner rather than later, is that moment when the rest of the world realizes that he will operate, by and large, in the framework of his predecessors. America will not change its strategic goals overnight, if at all: for example, in an Obama administration, much to the chagrin of most of the world’s Arabs, we will still by and large stand by Israel, and work against Iranian and Syrian nuclear weaponry.
So it’s not that Al-Qaeda is 100% wrong in critiquing Barack Obama as a successor to those who went before him and their policies, but their style of delivering that message was almost hilariously off-key, providing a rare moment of amusement in a day with further bitter economic news:
You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America. And in you and in Colin Powell, Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X (may Allah have mercy on him) concerning ‘House Negroes’ are confirmed.
Well, this is almost too rich – Al Qaeda criticizing America’s first black president by quoting Malcolm X on ‘house Negroes’, and accusing him of betraying his Muslim heritage by praying the prayer of the Jews, even though he is Christian.
Let’s hope Obama’s not too disheartened by the news…
If Bin Laden was alive, why Zawahiri making these statements? Because its doubtful that they have any canned bits of Bin Laden talking about a black US president they can splice together.
BTW, Zawahiri is going about this all wrong. First, he needs to become a Distinguished Professor of Education at some Pakistan U. Then, he can have coffee with Mr. Pals Around. Then he can write a book and go on Good Morning Ameica.
The first thought that comes to mind when I hear these statements is, “what is he (or they) trying to accomplish?”. Do they think that a bunch of Americans will react with, “Wow, I had never thought of it that way, but, damn, he’s got a point!”? Or maybe these messages to the world are really just messages to the al qaeda faithful as a way to demonstrate some sort of continued relevance?
Bizzare!