30 Oct 2004 |
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| Osama Bin Laden sat on the sidelines and watched the US presidential campaigns, daily following the polls like every one of us. Then, when it seems bad news is burying George W. Bush and Kerry is gaining the needed momentum nationally and in the swing states as we near the homestretch, he jumps in, reminding Americans he’s still alive! On the surface, the tape sounds like an attack on Bush, but Osama is not dumb. He’s sat with his political analysts and determined how he wants to influence this election. And it’s not difficult to know on whose side he is! If he wants Kerry to win, as George Bush and Cheney would have us believe, all he needed to do was to do nothing – just keep out of circulation - because Kerry is doing just fine as we near the finishing tape. But if he wants to stop the Kerry momentum, all he has to do is show his face and Americans already sold on fear by George Bush, like scared little puppies, will rally round the incumbent as the devil they know. Or so he thinks. Osama knows that attacking Bush this time will only solidify his base and push the undecided towards him, since the received wisdom is that he’s supposedly the one strong on terror (something only real in propaganda and not supported by the facts as we know them). Osama knows by reminding Americans of 9/11 and by using this opportunity to claim responsibility for the first time while taking a swipe at Bush for reading to kids and discussing goats as 50,000 burned, he’s likely to swing sympathy for the incumbent who was already being drowned in bad news by replacing all that with the resuscitative images of 9/11. Bin Laden cannot afford for Kerry and the Democrats to win, because that would mean he has to leave his comfort zone and begin all over again. A new administration, in an attempt to appear more focussed and more determined than the failed Bush, will certainly make life more miserable for him. Bin Laden knows he hasn’t done badly at all under Bush. Why would he want a change to a new administration which almost certainly will come at him with renewed vigour and impetus and which will be driven by new political pressures from the American public to get him? What chance would he have with a new Democratic administration, savvy enough to win new friends on his patch (unlike the instinctively unilateral Bush) and very likely to work with new ideas on how to succeed against Al Qaeda where the Bush people have failed? Bin Laden comes out ignoring Iraq (because he knows this is George Bush’s underbelly in this election with its horde of bad news) and talks about Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, claiming this was his greatest motivation to punish America! But in truth, what he is doing is telling the Jewish voters in Florida and elsewhere to please vote George W. Bush! And knowing how crucial Florida is to George Bush’s victory, Bin Laden mentions the state as where the senior Bush installed his son as governor and where he “did not forget to pass on the expertise in fraud” - a clear reference to the 2000 disputed elections. Obviously, Bin Laden is trying too hard here to sway the sentimental vote for Bush as decisively as possible! So, as it’s turned out, Bush’s October Surprise is not a dead or captured Bin Laden, but a grey-bearded campaign manager in a turban using their mutual instrument of fear to force Americans to re-elect Bush. Americans must make a bold statement, which is that they abhor failure and are hopeful of the future. Americans must ditch fear and bring in new men to run America and our world. It’s long overdue! AMERICANS, CALL OSAMA’S BLUFF! VOTE KERRY! Kennedy Emetulu, kenn@nigeriavillagesquare.com London |
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