Fw: "Crusade"

[Steve Diamond <sdiamond@xxxxxxx>]

 

Jim,

 

I think the use of the word crusade was consciously chosen, but not to "offend" the Arab world generally. My understanding is that he used it once, there was some protest but then he used it again.  I think the aim is to see what kind of reaction there was to the use of the word in the Middle East.  Bin Laden's propaganda calls for a jihad against the "Crusaders and the Jews."  Thus, I think the aim of the Bush regime was to see if using the word would cause a negative reaction in the Middle East and then they would have some measure of the popular support for bin Laden.

 

There has been little such public support and the the general strike called for today in Pakistan was a bust.  I think the confidence of the Bush people is growing, that they have a green light from Congress, very little opposition internationally and that an intense six month war will get underway within a week to ten days.  At the end of six months, unless he has clear results, then he may have some problems.

 

Stephen F. Diamond
School of Law
Santa Clara University
sdiamond@xxxxxxx