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March 15, 2004

Rightwing Talking Points on Spain

From comments in my Spain post

I thought you said that Iraq and al qaeda aren't related at all.

I thought you said that Bush was a lying weasel for invading Afghanistan and Iraq on the pretext of their being connected to al qaeda.

So let's explain this in small words for the faux moron set (i.e. they pretend to be stupid, so they can distort what the opposition says.)

Here's what the critique of the Iraq War was-- Al Qaeda is an opportunistic operation. They take advantage of real grievances among muslim countries in order to promote their own narrow radical visions. They seize on the Palestinian oppression, poverty, and US backed wars to recruit alienated young men (and some women) to give up their lives in terrorist attacks. Creating a new grievance in the form of an illegal war in Iraq will just help Al Qaeda recruit a new group of adherents.

Now, this does not mean Al Qaeda liked Saddam Hussein's regime. In fact, they hated him and had denounced him repeatedly over the years, since his Arab nationalism was a direct ideological competitor with their vision of an Islamic theocracy. But despite hating him, they can opportunistically take advantage of his ouster to pose as the defender of Arab nationalism against US interventionism.

Iraq and Al Qaeda were not linked, until the US linked them. Having linked them through invasion, Al Qaeda can take advantage of the perception of the link to stoke anger and recruit new adherents from those opposed to the invasion.

Hope that's in simple enough words for the Freeper types who might be reading.

Posted by Nathan at March 15, 2004 09:02 AM