Timber!!!!!!!!! (Nine)

 
Today's code is "Know Thy Enemy", and the suggestion today is America's war against Islamic jihad forces is weakened by the constant demonizing of the enemy, which may in the short term be good for vote-getting but in the long term it leads to greater and greater numbers of American dead, and greater and greater numbers of fighter's against America.
 
That is, while it is comfortable for Americans to think the Islamic warriors fighting America are evil lunatics, it weakens America's fight against them.
 
An example of this was George W. Bush's comparison this week of Osama Bin Laden to "Hitler and Lenin", when in fact Bin Laden is closer historically and philosophically to Saladin, the renowned 12th Century master Islamic strategist during the Crusades, and Bin Laden should be fought with that understanding.
 
The very juxtaposition of Hitler and Lenin as similar historical figures by Bush was absurd, and it causes me to wonder if Bush is that stupid, or his writers are that stupid, or if they don't know the difference between a mad dictator and a revolutionary giant.
 
It may be that the American people, dumbed down by their media, are incapable of making such distinctions, but for Bush to say Bin Laden is like Lenin, who is widely admired outside the capitalistic religiosity of America, is to print recruiting posters for Bin Laden.
 
(Hey, Bin Laden is another Lenin!  The oppressed and miserable rush to join him!)
 
It would be reasonable to estimate that when Bush made that sub-sophomoric comparison of Lenin and Bin Laden, he recruited a thousand soldiers for Bin Laden.
 
And to compare Bin Laden to Hitler is also a great error if for no other reason than Bin Laden is absolutely nothing like Hitler, and all the world outside island America knows this.  It may be nice propaganda popcorn for the American TV viewer, but it is not true; and in real terms it is a ridiculous statement.
 
Another ridiculous Bush statement this week was that America does not torture, a lie so obvious he might have said the moon is made of green cheese.
 
And while we are at it, a comparison of Bush and Bin Laden might be appropriate here.
 
They were both rich boys with powerful fathers, but while Bush hid from the war of his generation, Vietnam, Ben Laden voluntarily went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union invaders there, using his own money to buy arms for the cause, and putting his life on the line time after time after time.
 
Bin Laden is a combat vet; Bush is a fraternity boy.  Ben Laden plays chess; Bush plays checkers and is always crying, "King me!  King me!"
 
Had Bush had the courage to go to Vietnam, to fight the enemy in Vietnam, to risk death and see death, he would not be the shallow, stupid man he is today.
 
Bush is even far less than Hitler in terms of courage, Hitler saw combat in the First World War; and Bush is far, far closer to Hitler philosophically than is Bin Laden.
 
Speaking of courage, another error being constantly made by America is to fail to attribute the Muslim fighters with courage, and instead assign to them religious fanaticism.  It is a fool's error to think, for example, it does not take courage to be a suicide bomber.  That is a gross misunderstanding (not knowing your enemy) of the passions involved in becoming a suicide bomber.
 
This evaluation predominated after the suicide-bombing of the destroyer Cole on October 12, 2000, when "a cowardly act, a cowardly act, a cowardly act" was the expression constantly being fed to the public through the media.
 
Think about it; think-for-yourself-about-it; two men get into a motor boat to take on a man-of-war, they pull along side the man-of-war, totally missed by the US Navy daydreamers on watch, and (now picture this) they both stand at attention and salute just before they set off their charge.
 
If you call that a cowardly act you are on the losing side.  Know your enemy.  Your enemy is courageous.
 
There was an excellent example of this fantasy denial of courage in the hearts of the Islamic fighters Friday in a Fox news conversation between the Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera.  They were talking about 9/11 and Geraldo mentioned the courage of the men who carried out the attacks, and O'Reilly said there was no courage because they believed they would go to Heaven.
 
Dear Reader, it took courage for the Christians to face the lions even though they believed they would go to Heaven.  It took courage for the Crusaders to go to war even though they believed they would go to Heaven.  It took courage for Joan of Arc to go to the stake to be burned alive, even though she believed she would go to Heaven.  And believe it or not, Dear Reader, it took courage for Jesus to go to the cross.
 
So then Geraldo defended his statement that the 9/11 attackers had courage by referring to the Kamikaze pilots of Japan, and O'Reilly also immediately dismissed them, saying those courageous pilots believed their Emperor was a god and therefore their acts of noble suicide, traditional in Japanese military history, required no courage.
 
There is no getting away from propaganda, every country uses it.  As a boy during World War Two I was told by the movies the Japanese have no word for Love; and still into my early teens, into the early Fifties, that World War Two propaganda had me thinking the Japanese were a non-human monkey people.
 
Propaganda is meant to sway the mass mind of a society.  It becomes a great and crippling problem when the leaders of a society believe it.
 
That Bill O'Reilly has a right wing child's eye view of a multifaceted world is sort of comical in that it belongs back in 19th Century England, and sort of tragic in that it influences so many people.  It would be better, I think, if O'Reilly had a right wing adult's eye view.
 
That George W. Bush has a right wing child's eye view of a multifaceted world is a disaster of the first magnitude.
 
"Know Thy Enemy" does not mean know the sugar frosting of propaganda overlaying your enemy.  If you think your enemy is a fanatical nut, then you will fight him as if he were a fanatical nut, but America's enemy at this time is smart, dedicated and courageous.
 
Further, America's enemy has a cause for which he fights, and it is in many ways a just cause---but more on that tomorrow if no bigger news breaks
 
In closing today, remember I tried to warn of the 9/11 attack for three months before it took place, and remember America is too cowardly to let me prove it.