January 25th, 2009:

via To Combat Obama, Al-Qaeda Hurls Insults – washingtonpost.com.

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 25, 2009; Page A01

With Obama, al-Qaeda faces an entirely new challenge, experts say: a U.S. president who campaigned to end the Iraq war and to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and who polls show is well liked throughout the Muslim world.

Whether the pro-Obama sentiment will last remains to be seen. On Friday, the new administration signaled that it intends to continue at least one of Bush’s controversial counterterrorism policies: allowing CIA missile strikes on alleged terrorist hideouts in Pakistan’s autonomous tribal region.

Don’t get wrapped around the axle about these drone missile strikes! Clinton did the same against al-Qaeda when they had camps in Afghanistan. Look, if we are committed to chasing al-Qaeda, and it looks like we will be for the extended near future, then let us do it on the cheap. Let’s spare as many American lives as we can.

These missile carrying drones can do the job of many boots on the ground. The drawback is there may be some collateral damage. You have to remember the enemy always overstates and exaggerates collateral damage using the media to gain sympathy. These “smart” weapons greatly reduce collateral damage by pinpointing targets. If we use old WWII saturation type bombs the blast radius would cause much more devastation than these super accurate weapons.

When al-Qaeda finds it hard to gain sympathy, they try to rouse anger. When certain factions find it necessary to constantly remind me that something is either right or wrong, then I feel like I’m being worked. I’m sure Islamic folks  in the ME feel the same way.

But for now, the change in Washington appears to have rattled al-Qaeda’s leaders, some of whom are scrambling to convince the faithful that Obama and Bush are essentially the same.

“They’re highly uncertain about what they’re getting in this new adversary,” said Paul Pillar, a former CIA counterterrorism official who lectures on national security at Georgetown University. “For al-Qaeda, as a matter of image and tone, George W. Bush had been a near-perfect foil.”

It’s hard to demean a guy who is doing the right things (Obama). It’s what we have said all along, that Bush’s policies did more to recruit al-Qaeda than Osama bin Laded could ever accomplish. In that way, Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq killed our own troops. The occupation itself caused the rise of al-Qaeda. This is a direct contradiction to the story that Bush and Cheney wanted everyone to believe and it is something progressive Democrats have been saying for years.

Al-Qaeda is getting a bit flustered. They don’t see the anti-American sentiment with Obama and they are out on a PR campaign to try to drum up the hate. They should interview Ann Coutler.

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Soon after the vote, the attacks turned personal — and insulting. In his Nov. 16 video message,  [Ayman] al-Zawahiri [al-Qaeda number 2]denounced Obama as “the direct opposite of honorable black Americans” such as Malcolm X. He then used the term “house Negro,” implying that Obama is merely a servant carrying out the orders of powerful whites.

Since then, as Obama has begun moving to reverse controversial Bush administration policies, the verbal attacks have become sharper, more frequent and more clearly aimed at Muslim audiences.

As President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton move forward in a new diplomatic direction, al-Qaeda will only find it harder to gain the ear of the masses. There numbers will slowly diminish without firing a shot.