The British Envoy to Italy has articulated what many diplomats believe but few dare say in public: "If anyone is ready to celebrate the eventual re-election of Bush, it's al Qaeda... Bush is al Qaeda's best recruiting sergeant."
Retired USAF lieutenant colonel Karen Kwiatowksi argues that Bush and the neo-conservatives have already achieved Osama bin Laden's stated goals:
"They toppled Saddam Hussein, America now militarily threatens both the Shia government in Iran and the secular one in Syria, the House of Saud is crumbling and we have removed American troops from Saudi Arabian territory. These achievements match – word for word – the oft-stated goals of the Wahhabist Sunni radical Osama bin Ladin...Juan Cole argues that bin Laden might prefer a Bush win, but probably doesn't really care who wins in the USA this year:
The turmoil, destruction of economic and social life in Iraq, the escalation of political Islam there, both Sunni and Shia, and the sheer daily injustices visited on the very people we were "liberating" gives al Qaeda added bonuses of recruitment opportunities, local support, and tactical access to Americans and American interests."
"If the US withdraws from Iraq (which could happen willy-nilly under Bush as easily as under Kerry), that would be seen as a victory by al-Qaeda. If the US remains in Iraq for years, bleeding at the hands of an ongoing guerrilla insurgency, then that is also a victory for al-Qaeda from their point of view. They therefore just don't care which candidate wins... But given its goal of creating more polarization between the US and the Muslim World, it is entirely possible that the al-Qaeda leadership would prefer Bush, since they want to "sharpen the contradictions."
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