Foreign endorsements

You’ve probably heard already that an al Qaeda goofball came dangerously close to endorsing Obama for President (Reuters link);

“O God, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him,” Abu Yahya al-Libi said at the end of sermon marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, in a video posted on the Internet.

Libi, a top al Qaeda commander believed to be living in Afghanistan or Pakistan, called for God’s wrath to be brought against Bush equating him with past tyrants in history.

The remarks were the first from a leading al Qaeda figure referring, albeit indirectly, to the U.S. elections.

Dangerously, because bin Laden probably won the election for George Bush in 2004 because he endorsed Kerry in the finals days before the election. The goons hiding in caves probably don’t want to make that mistake again. Perhaps a better endorsement for McCain comes from the Iraqis (APF link);

“The Iranians believe that if Obama is elected he will not take action against them despite their nuclear ambitions. That worries me,” said Ali, sitting on an old bench in Al-Zahawi coffee shop.

“If the Iranians get the bomb they will become the Tarzan of the region,” said the former teacher and lecturer at the University of Baghdad, referring to the vine-swinging strongman of the jungle in old Hollywood movies.

Mohammed, also a professor at the university, said he too preferred McCain “because Obama supports a rapid withdrawal of US troops.”

“Our army is still too weak and Turkey and Iran are threats. Iran’s President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad has warned Iran would fill the void left when US troops depart,” he said.

I’m sure that the Iraqis remember that Congressional Democrats ignored the promise they made to the South Vietnamese people to protect them from the communists and how the communists rolled into Saigon virtually unopposed in 1975. They probably also remember how the Carter Administration and Democrat Congress fought off the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan with stiff rebukes and by boycotting the Moscow Olympics.

In the Wall Street Journal this morning, Fredrick Kagan reminds us that Herbert Hoover was the last President to serve a term without commanding US troops and assures us that national security should always be a consideration for voters. Unfortunately, I don’t think enough Americans can see past their wallets this season.

Category: Politics