Bush was considered bin Laden's most effective recruiter? A trip down Memory Lane takes us to this Amazon customer review of Al Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam, by Jason Burke.
Bush, as Burke points out, is bin Laden's most effective recruiter. Every time the US military does something in the Middle East, bin Laden's notion of a cosmic struggle between the West and Islam is reinforced. Another is that democracy is the answer--actually, as Burke demonstrates, pro-Western regimes in countries like Egypt and Pakistan have had to use authoritarian tactics to suppress popular Islamism. Finally, Burke shows how the war in Afghanistan was basically successful in destroying terrorists' bases of operations, but that the US invasion of Iraq, by giving those terrorists an new place to operate, was a major setback. Bush's advisors should give this a read if they aren't all illiterate.
Call it a fad, the popular theory back in September of 2004, just before the presidential election. It's representative of tortured Democratic logic that tries hard to persist, absurdly concluding that following Zarqawi into Iraq to take it away as a base of operations after first successfully doing it in Afghanistan, is somehow a setback.
What an invaluable review, one that makes it entirely unnecessary to go out and buy the book, not that I would anyway. The review makes clear that Mr. Burke threw this thing together when it was so much easier to be pessimistic about the War on Terror. Nowadays you have to work at it. It's either that or be downright delusional.
Long a stronghold for Islamic extremists and the world's second-most populous Muslim nation, Pakistanis now hold a more favorable opinion of the U.S. than at any time since 9/11, while support for al Qaeda in its home base has dropped to its lowest level since then. The direct cause for this dramatic shift in Muslim opinion is clear: American humanitarian assistance for Pakistani victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed 87,000. The U.S. pledged $510 million for earthquake relief in Pakistan and American soldiers are playing a prominent role in rescuing victims from remote mountainous villages...
While support for the U.S. has surged, there's also been a dramatic drop in support for Osama bin Laden and terrorism. Since May, the percentage of Pakistanis who feel terrorist attacks against civilians are never justified has more than doubled to 73% from less than half, while the minority who still support terrorist attacks has also shrunk significantly. There's been a similar increase in the number of Pakistanis disapproving of bin Laden, which rose to 41% in November up from only 23% in May.
It may very well be that our improving image resulted from earthquake and tsunami support, but that doesn't fully explain things -- like the changing attitudes about terrorist attacks against civilians or the growing disapproval of bin Laden. And another thing -- I would be willing to bet there hasn't been anyone, at any time in history, as successful as President Bush at sending terrorists into paradise in large numbers. We should fervently hope his successor can match him as a recruiter for al Qaeda.
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