Another Videotape From The Middle Ages.

So Al-Zawahiri has released a video tape to prove he survived the American attack in Pakistan. The transcript of his video is available at CNN (here) and is worth reading in full.

Reading Zawahiri's words is like reading a message from another century. He starts by referring to the failed attack by "the Jews and the Crusaders." Is there any doubt that he and his followers are anti-semitic to their core? The failed attack was made by the United States of America, not by Jews. American soldiers are not Crusaders either. The Crusades ended a millenium ago and they ended with a Muslim victory over the forces of Christendom.

Americans are often mocked for being historically ignorant. We do have short memories in the United States. But when Zawahiri refers back a thousand years to the Crusades to taunt America for an attack in the 21st Century, a short historical memory doesn't seem like such a bad thing. Perhaps the world would be better off if more people in it suffered from the historical amnesia that afflicts Americans.

And then there are these passages:

"Bush, you failed crusader, know that we are the nation of monotheism, which believes that no one is greater than God. He sent us a prophet and a book that was never edited like the other books before it. A
unique book that defies anyone to come up with anything like it.

"I will meet my death when God wishes. But if my time hasn't come, you and all the Earth's forces can't change it, not even by a second.

"Bush, do you know where I am? I am among the Muslim masses enjoying their care with God's blessings and sharing with them their holy war against you until we defeat you, God willing."

Our government goes out of its way to praise Islam and to make it clear that we are not fighting a religious war against Moslems. Al Qaeda though is fighting a religious war against us. America's religious tolerance leads us to credit all religions as having validity. Not Zawahiri's though. In his view Islam is the only true religion that is based on the unedited words of God. Can there be any question how badly non-Moslems would fare if Zawahiri and his jihadists were to win?

There can be no truce or negotiated end to this war. Either Al Qaeda will win or we will. We will have won when Al Qaeda and its philosophy are thought of in the Moslem world the way that Naziism is thought of in the West. When we can safely laugh at people who say the sort of things that Zawahiri says in his videotape, the way we can safely laugh at Nazis, then we'll know we have won. Nazis today are a joke. When Al Qaeda jihadists are a joke, then we'll know we have won. That won't happen any time soon. This is a long ideological war. Our troops are going to be over there for a long time. America needs to come to terms with that.

-tdr