Worse Than You Think

Some of the events that have been going on lately remind of me of the somewhat depressing ways our government has been acting. This particular incident brings the term bait and switch to my mind. Here are the details:

According to Al-Jazeera, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda's number two, claimed in a newly found videotape that Osama bin Laden is still alive and kicking. Not only is he still alive, but somehow he's managing to control Al-Qaeda's holy war from his little hiding spot as well. 'Al-Qaeda for holy war is still, thanks to Allah, a base for jihad. Its prince Osama bin Laden, may Allah protect him, still leads the jihad.'

Wait... Osama? Who's he? Oh yeah... wasn't he the one that we went to Afghanistan to catch in the first place? Oh well, we caught Saddam, and since he was a bad man, nobody else really matters... Right??

Zawahiri also instructed the Al-Qaeda fighters to attack oil installations in Islamic countries 'because most of the revenues of this oil go to the enemies of Islam.'

Oh shit...our precious oil is going to be destroyed! Well that isn't our priority though. We went to Iraq for the people right? It isn't like we cared about our oil or anything...

'All the lies that Bush tries to delude the Americans with, saying that he destroyed half, or three quarters of Al-Qaeda are but nonesense merely in his own head,' said Zawahiri.

WAIT... Bush? Wrong? How could this be?

I hate to say it, but the American people showed sheer stupidity when they re-elected Bush in '04. Hasn't anyone ever heard of bait and switch?

A bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the fraudster lures in customers by
advertising a good at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute good is.

Apply that to the context of our war, and what do you have? A beautiful case of bait and switch. Let's all think back to the 9/11 attacks. Who did we decide was responsible for the attacks? Osama bin Laden. So then what happened after that? We went to Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban and look for a certain somebody. Who was this certain somebody? Osama bin Laden. Then we decided that we had done as much damage as we could in Afghanistan, so we proceded on to destroy Iraq. Remember how you were told that the search for Osama bin Laden was still going on? Then suddenly, just in time for re-election, we found Mr. Saddam Hussein. Wait... were we looking for him in the first place? Not really. Did we get who we went to look for in the first place? Nope. But notice how our focus moved on from Osama and went to Saddam. Well, he was a bad man anyways. Millions of people were oppressed by Saddam and his regime, so thank god we caught him.

Now what the American people need to realize is that we shouldn't allow this "fraudlent activity" to continue. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be fooled into thinking that we are doing what is right and that we are helping the poor Iraqis. The Iraqis don't want us there. They aren't happy that their country is being Americanized. They don't want to have to deal with the Starbucks addiction that millions of Americans have. They don't want to grow fat and lazy like us from McDonalds. In fact, it's not just that the Iraqis don't really like our presence there. They want us OUT. So what should we do? It's simple enough, Bush.

Bring our troops home.

Good ol' Fidel Castro from down south called Govenor Jeb Bush President Bush's "fat little brother in Florida."

Jeb decided to respond with sarcasm and really told-off Castro.

"I'm flattered and honored. I will take any criticism from Fidel Castro, of all people, as an honor given the fact that, you know, 8 million people, I believe, live on the island, 8 million people are repressed and they've been that way for 40 or 50 years," Jeb said, "To be criticized by a man like that who has repressed people for such an extended period of time is a high honor. He can call me whatever he wants."

Castro then insisted that his comment was only intended as constructive criticism.

"Forgive me for using the term 'fat little brother," Castro said, "It is not a criticism, rather a suggestion that he do some exercises and go on a diet, don't you think? I'm doing this for the gentleman's health."

All I can say is: Wow...