So much for soft power! In truth, we shouldn’t care what al Qaeda thinks about us or our leaders. We shouldn’t seek their approval and we shouldn’t question ourselves over their scorn. Ayman al-Zawahiri’s new insulting message to President-elect Obama goes to show that America is the enemy, regardless of whether its leader says bring em’ on or come together.
From an intelligence standpoint, it’s interesting. The undisguised racism of the message (Zawahiri refers to Obama as a “house negro”) reveals a sloppy desperation on the part of al Qaeda. The organization used to be disciplined about their messages, playing on what they perceived as the sympathies of the American public. American member Adam Gadahn took to peppering Western bound Qaeda communiqués with liberal talking points in hopes of re-channeling domestic Bush-hatred. But insulting America’s widely-beloved President-elect for not being the right kind of black person isn’t going to get Zawahiri much support in the U.S., especially now, in the election’s afterglow. A wiser approach would have been to praise subtley America’s choice for change, and thereby play on a war-weary public to press for a less militaristic foreign policy. Think that’s crazy? A few months ago, all Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had to do to get Nancy Pelosi to see a diplomatic “opening” was go on TV and praise America’s “new behavior.” Western countries are cheap dates, as far as that kind of pandering is concerned.
Most importantly, this message solidifies something that the intelligence community has hinted at for a while: Ayman al-Zawahiri is now al Qaeda’s number one. He has more day-to-day involvement with the terrorist network than Osama bin Laden (who I personally suspect has been dead for some time), and his communication capacities are far greater, as well. Giving a message to the new American president is not a task that would be left to the number-two man. In fact, if Bin Laden is alive, delivering such a message should have constituted a full year’s work for the isolated figurehead.
