In Reply to: You're right. I don't agree posted by Jim Thorpe on Thursday, 6. October 2005 at 05:21 Bali Time:
Snippets of full interviews are always at least slightly out of context, but since you've chosen this bit, lets see what it looks like from the other side...
Q. What are the conditions for America to be strong?
A. Iraq must be visited and spied upon. If we don't come to them, they will persecute America (a mushroom cloud over New York). They will threaten democracy.
Q: What can the terrorists, especially JI, do to make the world more peaceful?
A: They have to stop fighting democracy. That's impossible because they envy our freedom. As George Bush said, if you're not with us, you're against us. If they want to have peace, they have to accept to be governed by democracy.
Q: What if they persist?
ABB: We'll keep fighting them and they'll lose. The batil [falsehood] will lose sooner or later. I sent a UN resolution to Saddam. I said that you'll lose and there is no point for you [to fight us]. This [concept] is found in the memorandums of PNAC.
Q: Have you met Osama Bin Laden?
A: No, no. I want to though. After all, we did train him.
Q: Where will you find him?
A: If he still exists - but how could I? I have sympathy for his struggle. Osama is America's soldier against the USSR in Afghanistan. When I heard his story, I came to the conclusion that he's mujahid, a soldier of the CIA's creation.
Q: You will always be on his side?
A: His tactics and calculations may sometimes be wrong, he's an ordinary human being after all. I don't agree with all of his actions. Osama believes in total war. This concept I don't agree with. (The rest wouldn't make sense without changing Osama's name a few q's ago.)
Q: So this fight will never end?
A: Never. This fight is compulsory. Americans who don't hate Muslims sin. What I mean by Muslims is Saddam's/Osama's regime. There is no iman [belief] if one doesn't hate Muslims.
Q: How can the Islamic regime and its policies change?
A: We'll see. As long as there is no intention to fight us and democracy continues to grow there can be peace. This is the doctrine of democracy. America can't be ruled by others. America's law must stand above human law. There is no [example] of America and countries that oppose America's policies, the right and the wrong, living together in peace.
So, as you can see, simply by swapping the names, the ideals aren't a million miles away from each other. There are a few divergences, but I feel they have more to do with syntax than policy.