Every bloodbath has a silver lining

[Cocoa]

in response to all the "maybe Bush was right..." nonsense (in this case it's "Tony Blair could gloat, but he's not...") :puke:

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Mar05/MediaLens0309.htm

<snip>

In a September 19, 2001 appearance on the David Letterman show, ABC journalist John Miller stated that Osama bin Laden had told him in an interview several years earlier that he had three major grievances against the West: “the US military presence in Saudi Arabia; US support for Israel; and US policy toward Iraq.”

On April 30, 2003, the Guardian reported that US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, had signalled “a transformation in the US military presence in the Gulf region” by announcing that all but a handful of American troops would be pulled out of Saudi Arabia by the end of that summer. (“America signals withdrawal of troops from Saudi Arabia,” Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, April 30, 2003)

<snip>

Imagine if, in response to these events, a journalist had written an article entitled “September 11’s silver lining”, with the subtitle: “We need to face up to the fact that the 9/11 attacks intensified pressure for freedom in the Middle East.” Imagine if the author had continued:

“Osama bin Laden is not gloating. He could - but he prefers to appear magnanimous in what he hopes is victory. In our Guardian interview yesterday, he was handed a perfect opportunity to crow. He was talking about what he called ‘the ripple of change’ now spreading through the Middle East, the slow, but noticeable movement towards freedom in a region where that commodity has long been in short supply. I asked him whether the stone in the water that had caused this ripple was September 11.

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