Soccer Dad

Is there room on mt. rushmore?

(via Instapundit)
I was reviewing A Brief History of a Long War (Iraq, 1990-2003) / 1998-1999 the other day. Most of what I saw was pretty standard. It showed how alarmed the Clinton administration was - and the rest of the world was - that Saddam had WMD. But that's now what had me in disbelief. It was a link excerpt of an interview that an American reporter had with Osama bin Laden:

In America, we have a figure from history from 1897 named Teddy Roosevelt. He was a wealthy man, who grew up in a privileged situation and who fought on the front lines. He put together his own men - hand chose them - and went to battle. You are like the Middle East version of Teddy Roosevelt.

I am one of the servants of Allah. We do our duty of fighting for the sake of the religion of Allah. It is also our duty to send a call to all the people of the world to enjoy this great light and to embrace Islam and experience the happiness in Islam. Our primary mission is nothing but the furthering of this religion. ... Let not the West be taken in by those who say that Muslims choose nothing but slaughtering. Their brothers in East Europe, in Turkey and in Albania have been guided by Allah to submit to Islam and to experience the bliss of Islam. Unlike those, the European and the American people and some of the Arabs are under the influence of Jewish media. ...

What sort of moonbattery is that? Comparing Osama bin Laden to Teddy Roosevelt. Maybe the reporter, John Miller of ABC was baiting bin Laden. But if he was doing that why was that presented in the form of a statement instead of explaining who Roosevelt was, and then asking bin Laden if he viewed himself as another Roosevelt.

Do you think it's possible that after getting treatment like this that bin Laden might have been led to believe he could act against the U.S. with impunity?

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