It is worth reading and pondering Bin Laden’s words to understand where we are at in the war on terror. Don’t expect the lazy SurrenderMedia to do the work it takes to actually comprehend a story or issue – they don’t have the intellectual curiosity to delve into things deeply. Heck, they snatch one line from a long DoD report and declare there is no connection between Saddam and al-Qaeda when in fact a reading of the report shows Saddam working with AQ’s 2nd command Zawahiri for maybe ten years before he joined his organization (Egyptian Islamic Jihad) with Bin Laden’s AQ. No connection there! So it is always best to think for one’s self instead of relying on people who have a gift in missing key fact (dots all around them, but they cannot find them).

In Bin Laden’s latest message he sounds desperate and frustrated. He even adopts a variant on what Bush said right after 9-11: which to me is very telling. But let’s look at the frustration Bin Laden has with his fellow Muslims, as he declares jihad on them!

Therefore through agitation and war we cease the might of the unbelievers so what is it that stops us from fighting in Allah’s cause? It is the innumerable chains that have been placed on us by the Christian-Zionist alliance through the rulers of the area, and they (rulers) on their part, through their scholars and media, have chained us.

It may be more obvious to others, but it took me a while to get the feelings behind this part of his statement. He has lamented the “siege” the Western non-believers have put on Palestine for a century. And he has noted the long fight with the Zionist and Christians. As we get into this part of the speech he is saying war and terrorism (I am sure that is what he means by “agitation”) is the only way to cease the siege of the unbelievers. And then he asks what is stopping us from success?

And here is where he lashes out at the rulers in the Arab states who he claims are allies with the Christians and Zionists. But not just them, he includes teachers and media as well as those who have used some kind of propaganda to weaken the fight, to ‘chain’ the cause. And this is interesting to me because it signals the opposite of victory. It hints at failure and some blame for that failure. As I said before on this, it sounds like a desperate call for help from Bin Laden, not a confident speech pushing his followers onto victory.

Despite this strong siege on you, there is a great opportunity to regain your freedom from subjection and subservience to this Christian-Zionist alliance. For that to happen, we will have to break free from the chains of disgrace and submission by which the workers of this alliance, the leaders of our countries and their followers, have chained us. We will have to set ourselves free from the chains of the scholars under these rulers and from the leaders of Islamic groups that believe it is acceptable to embrace the ruler of the country who has deceived the religion and joined the politics of the country whether it is with the ruling or the opposition.

The same applies to the other groups that have enlarged their cautiousness to such an extent that it reached the level of fear, making them sit back from participating in jihad, that act of worship which their ruler forbids and that is the summit of this religion. And it is the way to prevent the unbelievers from dismantling the siege on the Muslims.

This part is also interesting because he first asks the true believers to stand up to the forces in the Arab/Muslim states that are opposing terrorism, and then he goes after an interesting group – those on the sidelines neither fighting with al-Qaeda or fighting against them. Bin Laden needs recruits, and the only place he is going to get them is from this unaligned segment of the Muslim community – which is shrinking as more and more Muslims take up the cause in opposition of al-Qaeda and their ilk. I find it interesting not that he calls them out, but how he choses to ‘entice’ them to fight in his war:

This deadly siege started by Arab leaders providing support to America and the Zionist alliance on the Mujahideen in Palestine and this one of the things that nullifies their Islam for they are partners in this hideous crime. So the Muslims should abhor them and prey upon them; they should strive to remove them and be openly innocent as much as possible, and if they are not able, then at least be innocent in the heart.

…

In front of us there are three groups; the Mujahideen and those who support them, those who are sitting back from the jihad in the path of Allah and to help Palestine without excuse and the Christian-Zionist alliance and those who support it. And at their head are the rulers of the area and their evil scholars.

Happy is the one who is from the first group, may Allah make you and us happy. And deprived is the one who is from the second group that is far away from the victory of its religion. And dismal is who is from the last group, may Allah protect us and you from it.

This last part is a variation on Bush’s demand that ‘you are either with us, or against us’. We are at war folks. And until the enemy is completely vanquished we must not stop – because they will not stop. Surrender is what the losers do as a clear indication to the victors that the fighting can end without risk. Until the loser surrenders there is no indication that the fighting can safely be replaced with more reasonable (and common) forms of human interaction and disagreement. AQ is not done fighting.

While all this speculation into how good or bad it is going for al-Qaeda, one thing is clear. Their prime objective is winning Iraq:

It is not hidden from you that the closest battlefields of jihad to help our people in Palestine is the battleground of Iraq. So we should concentrate on it and help it. And the obligation of supporting them falls most on the Muslims in the nearby countries. And the people of Syria, the whole of Syria, should feel the greatness of Allah’s grace on them to carry out their obligation to help their Mujahideen brothers in Iraq. And this is a great opportunity for my emigrant brothers from Palestine, who have been forced from the splendor of Jerusalem, to remove the ideas of the groups and parties that are drowned in the polytheistic ploy of democracy, and to hurry to take their positions in the ranks of the Mujahideen in the Land of the Two Rivers. Victory from Allah will come to them by their struggle and trust in Allah and then they will proceed to the Holy Aqsa and the Mujahideen from outside will meet their brothers inside, bringing back the memory of Hittin that cooled the eyes of the Muslims with a great victory.

Anyone foolish enough to think Bin Laden is not praying and hoping that the Democrats will pull our troop strength down to the point al-Qaeda can rise back up again in Iraq is just not paying attention to anything but the mind-washing of liberal talking points. Bin Laden wants his caliphate in Baghdad, and he is pleading with Syria and Palestine to rush to that battlefield to help win back what al-Qaeda has lost.

Given how loose with reality both Obama (who does a real good Sgt Schulz when he claims he “knows nothing” about his racist, anti-american pastor) and Clinton (who dreams of dodging bullets in Bosnia, when in reality her and Chelsea were doing a meet-and-greet on the airport tarmac) are it makes no sense to listen to their spin on AQ and Bin Laden. We have the source and our own minds to figure out what he wants. He wants to fight and is now lashing out at the Muslim community for siding with his enemies. We have him ‘outside’ Islam, we just need to finish the job.

Update: Another sign of a desperate al-Qaeda in need of recruits:

On March 6, Al-Sahab, the media arm of al Qaeda, released a 46-minute video statement titled “They Lied: Now Is the Time to Fight.” The speaker is Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu-al-Yazid, 52, an Egyptian who runs al Qaeda’s operations in Afghanistan, and the speech is in most respects the usual mix of earthly grievances, heavenly promises and militant exhortations. It’s also an urgent call for recruits.

“We call on the fathers and mothers not to become a barrier between their children and paradise,” says Abu-Al-Yazid. “If they disagree who should first join the jihad to go to paradise, let them compete, meaning the fathers and the children. . . . Also, we say to the Muslim wives, do not be a barrier between your husbands and paradise.” Elsewhere in the message, he makes a “special call to the scholars and students seeking knowledge. . . . The jihad arenas are in dire need of your knowledge and the doors are open before you to bring about the virtue of teaching and jihad.”

…

Last year, imprisoned Egyptian radical Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, a.k.a. “Dr. Fadl,” published “The Document of Right Guidance for Jihad Activity in Egypt and the World.” It is a systematic refutation of al Qaeda’s theology and methods, which is all the more extraordinary considering the source.

…

Sayyed Imam is emphatic on the subject of the moral obligations of the would-be jihadist. “One who lacks the resources [to fight jihad] is forbidden to acquire money through forbidden means, like [burglary],” he says, adding that “Allah does not accept martyrdom as atonement for a mujahid’s debts.” As for a child’s obligations toward his parents, he adds that “it is not permitted to go out to fight jihad without the permission of both parents . . . because acting rightly with one’s parents is an individual obligation, and they have rights over their sons.”

“This has become pandemic in our times,” he adds in a pointedly non-theological aside. “We find parents who only learn that their son has gone to fight jihad after his picture is published in the newspapers as a fatality or a prisoner.”

AQ is so desperate they are willing to commit sins of Islam to try and survive – a sign the organization is on its last legs.