Genus: political bozo

Spot – or rather his inner human – said the other day that no one wanted to address the question posed by Zacarias Moussaoui after his sentencing: Why do you suppose we hate you so? Skepticism was expressed over the standard explanation:

Is it so believable to think that a large number of people just went off the deep end and set out to kill Westerners? If anyone is so bold as to question that explanation, he is branded as an “America hater.” Maybe, just maybe, it’s more nuanced than that. And questioning your country’s action is an act of love, not hate.

Well, somebody did tackle the question, Jonathan Schwarz at A Tiny Revolution. Part of his answer:

They don't care about destroying our freedom. In fact, they give no thought whatsoever to us. Their goal is the same as the goal of political bozos the world over: they want to have more power than their "domestic" rivals.

Think of Bush. If you could listen in on every White House conversation, you'd find his central, overriding goal is not to reorder the Middle East or seize the world's oil. It's to have more power than Democrats. They invaded Iraq because they thought it would help.

Likewise with al Qaeda. If you read the 9/11 report, you'll find the central, overriding concern for al Qaeda had nothing to do with us. Their goal was to triumph "in their struggle for preeminence among other Islamist and jihadist movements," and splashy suicide attacks seemed like the way to make that happen (p. 191).

Meanwhile, the Taliban's goal was also to have more power than their domestic rivals. Thus, they opposed the 9/11 attacks: "The Taliban leaders put their main emphasis on the year's military offensive against the Northern Alliance...They certainly hoped that this year's offensive would finally finish off their old enemies...an attack against the United States might be counterproductive. It might draw the Americans into the war against them."
But bin Laden's domestic rivals were different. He pressed to go forward because he [quoting from the 9/11 report] "thought an attack against the United States would benefit al Qaeda by attracting more suicide operatives, eliciting greatest donations, and increasing the number of sympathizers willing to provide logistical assistance" (p. 251).

Note the lack of desire to destroy our freedom. Nor was there gloating over all the Americans they were going to kill, just complete indifference. Instead, they were focused on the same crap the political bozo genus is always obsessed with: money and footsoldiers, so they could stay in power within their own societies for a few more luscious minutes.

They're not supervillains. They're just standard-issue dipshits.

Kinda like somebody else we know.