Busily Transcribing The Words Of A Madman

So, yes, there's a new video by Osama bin Laden, or at least some dude with a fake beard ("I'm the new Dread Pirate Roberts"). And the right is going to town analyzing the words and phrases, trying to divine his meaning. Apparently he rambles about Democratic paralysis on Iraq, global warming, subprime mortgages, Noam Chomsky, and low taxes in Islam. Apparently he has an RSS reader and he's getting a lot of news.

On this I'm completely in agreement with Steve Benen.

I suspect the video will have some political reverberations, and maybe I’ll regret writing this, but I have a radical idea: let’s ignore the bastard.

If activists want to exploit bin Laden’s tedious nonsense, there are plenty of ways to do so. For those of us on the left, one could say, “bin Laden’s criticism of congressional Democrats sounds just like Republicans’! The GOP and OBL are reading from the same talking points!”

For those on the right, one could do the opposite: “bin Laden blasted the neocons, just like liberals do! The left and OBL are reading from the same talking points! And he says the terrorists are monitoring our media! So when Dems criticize Bush, it emboldens the enemy!”

Can we just skip it? Osama bin Laden is a madman. His perspective is one of insanity. The bastard’s analysis of American politics is a) meaningless; and b) meant to sow division. Might we be better off not trying to make use of the rambling tirade of a monster who killed 3,000 Americans?

I’m just putting that out there.

I don't see how you can look at it any other way. Chris Wallace scored points on the right in the Republican debate by asking Ron Paul if he was "taking marching orders from Al Qaeda." And then every conservative blogger watches the bin Laden tape and makes pronouncements on what it all means, ACTUALLY taking marching orders from Al Qaeda. To quote Josh Marshall:

I don't gainsay the danger or destructive power of the man. I still remember Rick Hertzberg's quote just after 9/11 that the attacks were as brilliant as they were evil. (This is from memory: so I may have the precise words wrong. But he well captured the way in which the horror and evil of the attacks were matched by their diabolical ingeniusness.) But as an articulator of a vision, an expounder of "Islamofascism," or whatever the new trademarked word is now, he's about as coherent and comprehensible as a 9th tier blogger or one of those whacks sitting on a stoop in Union Square talking about fascism and Texas oil barons before they get overcome by the shakes or decide to start collecting more aluminum cans.

We should set our counter-terrorism strategy not based on the rantings of a lunatic, but based on a sound, comprehensive strategy to attack the problem at the root. In a laudatory speech today, one which recognizes that Al Qaeda remains as big a threat as they were before 9/11, but that they can be neutralized by a strong multilateral approach, John Edwards stepped forward and articulated a new vision for dealing with terror.

Instead of Cold War institutions designed to win traditional wars and protect traditional borders, we need new institutions designed to share intelligence, cooperate across borders, and take out small, hostile groups.

Instead of a foreign policy of convenience that readily does business with whoever is available and regularly turns a blind eye when our allies behave wrongly or fail to cooperate, we need a new foreign policy of conviction that requires cooperation in exchange for our support, whether it's arms sales, trade, or foreign aid.

Instead of an exclusively short-term focus on the enemy we know, we need a long-term strategy to win the minds of those who are not yet our enemies, by offering education, democracy, and opportunity in place of radicalism, hatred and fear.
Most of all, instead of a reckless, solo pursuit of an ideological agenda that abandons our moral authority and disregards our allies, we need to reengage with the world and reassert our moral leadership.

This is the kind of interconnected approach to fighting terror that worked in uncovering the German plot just a few days ago. An American intelligence intercept began the process to capturing the plotters (and yes, it was foreign-to-foreign communications, having nothing to do with the domestic warrantless wiretapping program, and in fact the Administration imperiled that contact by insisting on new domestic spying powers and shutting down the foreign-to-foreign intercepts for two months). Edwards goes further and proposes an entirely new organization to strengthen these ties:

As president, I will launch a comprehensive new counterterrorism policy that will be defined by two principles—strength and cooperation.

The centerpiece of this policy will be a new multilateral organization called the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Treaty Organization (CITO).

Every nation has an interest in shutting down terrorism. CITO will create connections between a wide range of nations on terrorism and intelligence, including countries on all continents, including Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. New connections between previously separate nations will be forged, creating new possibilities.

CITO will allow members to voluntarily share financial, police, customs and immigration intelligence. Together, nations will be able to track the way terrorists travel, communicate, recruit, train, and finance their operations. And they will be able to take action, through international teams of intelligence and national security professionals who will launch targeted missions to root out and shut down terrorist cells.

Edwards also calls for nuclear nonproliferation, chemical plant protection, energy independence, lifting those regions susceptible to extremism out of poverty, restoring America's moral leadership, a "Marshall Corps" providing humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to the developing world, conditioning future aid to countries like Pakistan to their relinquishing of safe harbors for terrorists, and committed civic action by young people to foster a new patriotism to help raise our country's image abroad.

Now THAT'S worth listening to, not a crank in a cave.