Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Al-Qaeda released a new video this week by Azzam the American, a.k.a. Adam the goat farm dork. Seriously, an American from California named Adam Gadahn ran off from California and joined al-Qaeda and now he runs the al-Qaeda AV Club.
Last night on the show, Rachel Maddow took Adam Gadahn's video apart. It seems like something out of the Onion, once you stop to look at it:
Here's the thing I always forget about al-Qaeda. For all their murderous intent and demonstrated capacity for all their global plotting, for all the deadly serious implications of them getting access to even more deadly means of targeting us than they have already figured out, for all the truly scary things we have already figured out about al-Qaeda, it is easy to forget that on their own terms, they're often freaking ridiculous....
I know al-Qaeda is al-Qaeda, right? But is it OK to point out that they're ridiculous, that their propaganda is inadvertently funny -- as in,
"Ha-ha, I'm laughing at you"? These guys are like the reject pile at talk radio tryouts.
We, obviously, vote "yes." You?
After the jump, interview guest David Kilcullen on the limits of success in Afghanistan, where General David Petraeus says the number of al-Qaeda fallen to the low "double-digit numbers."
[Full segment]
[From the 2007 New Yorker: "Azzam the American"]
Kilcullen, author of Counterinsurgency and an adviser to coalition forces in Afghanistan, tells us that lasting peace depends on the home country's government.
Well, I think the gunfire today and the attempt to hit Richard Holbrooke is more evidence, yet more evidence, of the political smarts of the Taliban. They are certainly the most agile political opponent that we have dealt with, far better, in fact, than al-Qaeda at building support from a local population....
One of the harsh and inescapable realities about counterinsurgency that I write about in my book is that you can only be as good as the government you're supporting. And you can be perfect at counterinsurgency as a set of tactics, and we're not.
But even if we were, we can't be any better than government we're working for. And that's where the problem is now in Afghanistan.
Leave a Comment:
Adam Gadahn sounds like he's doing an impression of the gossiping Rabbi that lives in Elaine's building on Seinfeld.
Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmtPXzXxl90
"Goat Boy" is giving Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf a run for his money for Islamic comic gold.
Thank you for The Interview. It was great to have David Kilcullen reiterate what Osama Bin Laden's plan is; I don't think the general population quite understands yet that every time we send troops overseas we are doing exactly what he wants us to.
This is really a point we need to drive home.
Direct from his mother's basement......It's Azzam's World.......Excellent!
As if the cajoling nature of Goat Boy here is going to sway our President? Love the way he says, "Come on, Barack..."
Maybe the pained look comes from a turban wound a little too tight?
I can't believe you've fallen for what Adam "Fake Al-Qaeda" Pearlman and Osama bin "dead for a decade" Laden have to say. Your show has truly moved from journalism to propaganda - ah, the price of fame. Maybe you should ask why these images are so ridiculous and who benefits from Muslims looking stupid, but that would be journalism. I miss your radio show and how you always started with what matters, the wars! Remember those?
speaking of wars...how many more failed states do we re-build to stop aQ? somolia? yemen? burma?...
Patraeus and McChrystal are flunkies left over from from the Bush administraion.
Like most extremist groups, they start out with a semi-legitimate grudge, and then go straight off the deep end to Wackyville. Bin Laden originally said that stationing US troops in Saudi Arabia, home of the holiest site in Islam, was an insult. During the Bush administration, those troops were indeed removed. But by that time, OBL had more demands. His time in Afghanistan fighting the Russians had turned him into someone who seemed to want and need to fight. He crossed the line from perhaps being a legitimate freedom fighter into being someone who constantly had to be in conflict with anyone who he perceived to be insulting Islam in some way. Because Al Qaeda alienated the average muslim with his violence and extremism, they have found it very difficult to recruit new members, especially when so many of them seem to get in the way of missiles fired by Predator drones. In addition, they have never shown any sign that they want to actually govern. On the other hand, the Taliban seems to be growing stronger. They are probably just as extreme in many ways, but they have also governed, and apparently there were some people who were ok with their regime. They continue to draw more recruits, and the failure of the US to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan is only helping their cause. Al Qaeda may be ridiculous, and nearly powerless, but the Taliban is a different creature entirely, and may actually be more dangerous these days.
That guy - Azzam seems strangely similar to Neil Cavuto.
They are rejects. But, unfortunately, rejects sometimes band together and form terrorist groups.
I bet if you looked at goat boys background, you will find a bad childhood experience.
The only thing more ridiculous is the U. S. Government continuing the "weekend at osama's" charade and pretending that their former CIA contact turned boogeyman is still alive. Al Qaeda, the ragtag remnants of the scary organization (they have monkey-bars and can run obstacle courses!) is a brand name created by the M-I complex to justify continuation of the obscene level of "defense" spending, and creation of "Homeland Security" to take it to the next level.
And Rachel and Keith and all the other bobbleheads play off the same sheet of music. Shameful.
I remember The Onion's 9-11 headline: "Holy Sh*t!" Though that has since been scrubbed down the memory hole, I have to say that ever since that day the line between reality and satire has been blurred to a level that would have made W.S. Burroughs say, "I told you so."