I've never been a big fan of patterning U.S. foreign policy on what terrorists may or may not think of us. Still, this AP report on who some Al Qaeda supporters would like to see in the White House is consistent with the idea that in order to function properly, terrorist groups need an effective enabler:
The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said. "Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."
SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message.
"If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests," the message said, "this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it."
I don't believe that Americans should pick their candidates based on who terrorists or their supporters would like to see in office, let alone on an internet message board. But many people on the Right do believe this is incredibly important, and that Americans should base their votes entirely on who the terrorists seem to be most afraid of. That apparently isn't McCain.
Certainly, if Al Qaeda supporters were celebrating the idea of an Obama presidency rather than expressing support for the alternative, we'd be hearing about it a lot.
--A. Serwer
