The other day, I highlighted what I considered some of less-sane, more-unhinged reactions to the midterm elections from some of the right’s leading bloggers. In the interest of fair play, I think it’s only reasonable to be evenhanded and highlight another leading conservative blogger for his reasonable, even patriotic, take on the latest terrorist propoganda video.
As you may have heard, [tag]al Qaeda[/tag] released a video yesterday with a rambling diatribe from Abu Hamza [tag]al-Muhajir[/tag] about recent political developments in the U.S.
Al Qaeda in Iraq taunted President Bush on Friday to keep American troops in the country because the terrorist organization had not shed “enough of your blood,” bragging that it now has 12,000 fighters in the war-torn country.
The terror group also welcomed the U.S. Republican electoral defeat that led to the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. [tag]Rumsfeld[/tag] and vowed to continue its fight until the White House is blown up. […]
In the tape, al-Muhajir praised the outcome of Tuesday’s elections in which [tag]Democrats[/tag] swept to power in the House and the Senate, in large part due to U.S. voter dissatisfaction over the handling of the war in Iraq.
“The American people have put their feet on the right path by … realizing their president’s betrayal in supporting Israel,” the terror leader said. “So they voted for something [tag]reasonable[/tag] in the last elections.” He did not explain his logic.
As far as al Qaeda is concerned, Bush’s decision to replace Rumsfeld is a big victory for terrorists, as is Americans’ decision to replace Republicans in Congress. For that matter, al-Muhajir insists the decision to leave troops in Iraq is also a big victory for terrorists, and one assumes, he’d say the same thing about withdrawing troops.
Captain’s Quarters, one of the top far-right blogs (which I happen to read daily), described the video as “the kind of stupid rant that makes radical Islamists and their sympathizers swoon with delight, but is filled with hyperbole and crude attempts at psychological warfare and propaganda.”
Captain Ed argued the terrorists are trying to “provoke Americans across the political spectrum” and it would be “a mistake to allow them to succeed.” It’s one of the more important points I’ve seen raised on a conservative blog in a long while.
I hope he won’t mind too much if I excerpt at length:
Radical Islamists want to divide Americans in order to defeat us. They will play on our differences, stoking the fires of resentment and generating more hatred between us than we have against our enemies. AQ understands that the only way they can possibly beat the US is to get us to grind to a halt with partisan warfare at home, paralyzing our ability to fight them on the battlefield and sapping our will to put them out of business. This video is transparently calculated to give enough ammunition to both sides of the political divide to do that job. Besides, if we take Abu Hamza at his word about the Democrats, then we have to take him at his word about Bush as well, and about our troops.
The partisan sniping has ceased to be germane. We’ve already had the election, and the Democrats are in charge — and they will be for two years no matter what. Obviously, we [on the right] will watch closely to ensure that they do not surrender to terrorism, but I’m not going to take Abu Hamza’s word that they will before their majority session even starts. They are Americans, and Americans put them in charge, and they have earned the right to show us how they will face the enemy now that they control the agenda. If they fail, I’ll be the first to castigate them for losing ground to the terrorists. However, I’m going to base that on their actions, and not on the word of a murderous thug who couldn’t care less whether their American victims are Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, or LaRouchists.
The reality is that we cannot win the war on terror without the Democrats after these midterm elections. Rather than continue with antagonizing rhetoric, we’d better find ways to engage them rationally in this effort if we want to survive. I’m hoping we can find common ground with them now that they have the responsibility to govern. If we can’t, then let’s criticize them for their actual failures, and not get so intent on grasping at any way to attack them that we start becoming repeater stations for the ravings of genocidal lunatics.
Just to be clear for those of you who don’t read Captain Ed frequently, I’d be hard-pressed to describe him as a moderate. He’s an articulate, consistent conservative who disagrees with Democrats about practically everything. On national security issues, he’s looking ahead with skepticism.
But based on a post like this one, he’s also someone who wants America to succeed, and would rather see Dems execute an effective national security policy than score cheap political points. Captain Ed is willing to give us a chance, now that we’re in a position to affect public policy.
The Captain’s Quarters post has not yet received much in the way of favorable responses from other conservative blogs, which is a shame. If more on the right embraced this approach, finding “common ground” would be far less challenging.