I don't think Kaus necessarily believes that al Qaeda wants Kerry to win. One Kaus' shticks is challenging conventional wisdom. He seems to do it with most topics, which I think is actually quite helpful. While I don't always agree with his contrarian point-of-view, it's good to have someone around who can look at both sides of an equation when it comes to political calculus.

1. Zapatero´s victory was part of a strategy to widen the trans-atlantic drift ans isolate america from its allies.

2. Al Qaida itself is very much keen on sustaining a good image in the arab world, because that´s their main recruitment base. Telling the world that they cooperated with someone like Saddam Hussein, who was very much hated throughout the arab world, could damage their popularity in the muslim population worldwide.

I don't think AQ is all that sophisticated, politically. They killed people in Spain to kill people in Spain. When the election turned, they were like, yeah, we meant to do that.

I don't think they care who the President is. Look at how many attacks there were during the Clinton presidency, and he was no threat to them.

So Kaus is all wet on this. They don't care who wins, they want to kill the infidels, anyway.

From Kaus:

"I'm very sympathetic to the book's thesis--that Bush has played into Osama's hands, at least in crucial respects."

Why do these communists want us to be losing?

You might want to rephrase that, "As a Democrat, I understand..." Just sayin'.

I think it's pretty obvious that AQ want's Kerry to win-- not because Kerry would be any better for them, but c'mon, Bush is *awful* for them.

In the comfort of American debating societies (or cushy blogrolls), we have the merciful detachment to allow us to invent ornate frameworks to hang our theories on.

Out there in the shit, where AQ footsoldiers are getting shot up in the middle of the street every day, where nobody can even use a cel phone anymore, well. . . something tells me the average mad mullah is like "Dear Allah, anybody but Bush, please!"

While we here all know that the war could be made a lot worse for AQ than it currently is, I'd be surprised-- shocked-- if the general AQ sentiment isn't heavily against Bush.

Dave
Arlington, VA

YOU'RE A DEMOCRAT????!!!!!

(Yes, that horrible misplaced modifier needs to be fixed--"As a Democrat, I...".)

Regarding who the terrorists support, I'd not be surprised if some of them support Bush because remember: They worship death as much as we worship life.

We're talking about a mentality that refines the art of blowing one's self up.

I fixed the "as a democrat" thing. Thanks.

There's another one-liner AQ could use to ensure George Bush's re-election:

"I, Osama bin Laden, do hereby endorse John Kerry for President of the United States."

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