Is Al-Qaeda Endorsing McCain?
Whereas some conservative-leaning columnists have thrown their support toward Obama or have supported McCain only tepidly, at least one reactionary organization from abroad may be rooting for a McCain victory. According to a commentary posted last week on al-Hesbah, an Arabic website popular with radical Islamists, “Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election.” In his latest op-ed, Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute’s Center on Peace & Liberty, argues that al-Qaeda’s support for a McCain presidency would be consistent with its strategy of drawing more U.S. troops to Muslim lands and thereby increasing the number of anti-U.S. terrorists. Just as the Bush administration’s military campaign in Afghanistan and Iraq prompted growing numbers of radical Islamists to join al-Qaeda and other violent cells, the argument goes, so a McCain administration would bolster the ranks of anti-U.S. terrorists even further. “Whether McCain, if elected, would fall into a simil
