He Still Doesn't Get It

Here are a couple of translations of Osama bin Laden’s latest word to the world. The differences between the last translated lines are interesting.

Al-Jazeera’s version (via CNN):

Your security is not in the hands of (Democratic presidential candidate John) Kerry, Bush or Al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands. Any (presidential) mandate which does not play havoc with our security would automatically ensure its own security.

MEMRI’s version:

Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands, and any (US) state that does not belittle our security automatically guarantees its own security.

The second is a little more specific, no?

Thanks to bin Laden, I, for one, am much more optimistic about the future of our country than has been so in many weeks prior.

Remember that bin Laden theorized that an attack as catastrophic as 9/11 would cause the breakup of the Union. At the time most thought that he had learned the lessons of the Civil War one hundred forty years too late. Apparently, the failure of the Union to dissolve in the last three years hasn’t disabused him of this notion.

One wonders what bin Laden or others who are used to more totalitarian types of government than that of the US think when they observe the present pre-election strife occurring all over this country. Bin Laden’s words give perspective. When a great deal of political strife exists here what do we do? We march, yell and scream and lawyer-up. At worst, we have to deal with vandalized lawn signs and empty campaign headquarters. At the very bottom, some will even try to run down candidates with their Cadillacs; and be arrested. But as deplorable as the most virulent forms of dissent are here, think about how such would materialize in most of the Arab world: torched/bombed homes and campaign headquarters, along with many dead bodies; of candidates and private citizens alike. (That bin Laden expected such in the Afghanistan elections of a few weeks back proves the point. He seems as shocked as the rest of us were that they went as smoothly as they did.)

Been there, done that. And I’m sure most of us don’t want to go there again.

Because of our history, bin Laden and his ilk view our present versions of dissent as the harbinger of the break-up of the 200 plus year-old contract. And he believes that, by offering a hudna to the Kerry-states, he can widen the wedge further on toward that goal: intimidate the Kerry-leaning states into going mega-blue and inflame hostility between those states and those that will go for Bush.

Let's not forget the main goal of any terrorist: to incite fear.

Unlike him however, most of us have learned the right lessons from our history (and that of Spain and the Philippines) and, after the results of tomorrow’s election, I believe that we will see fit not to repeat the mistakes.

Vote your conscience tomorrow (if you haven’t already), and do so without fear.

(Thanks to Liz)

Comments

[Alexander]

One does not read al-jazîra's translation (an excellent one, in better English than CNN - which should not bewilder anybody these day) via a secondary channel. One goes to the source, which I have tried to append as a separate link.

By the way, Octavia Nasr's CNN translation is not bad in and by itself, but actually quite faithful - it's just her English which is not as supple and subtile as al-jazîra's.

[Alexander]

Oh yes - which terminal idjit came forth with the disingenuous forgery of "_US_ states", pray ? That's of course why 'Usama bin Ladin mentions Sweden rrrright in his next, explanatory sentence. As every US American knows, Sweden is a Kerry-voting state of the Union...

[DeoDuce]

I had the same question in my head when Osama bin Hidin mentioned the "50,000." Fuzzy math.