Epistemological crisis

Is it just me, or does this make the War on Terror a bit like being at war with Fredonia, the fictional country in Duck Soup where Groucho Marx is the prime minister?

A man describing himself as al Qaeda's European military spokesman also claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombing
...
The statement said it supported President Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader ''more foolish than you [Bush], who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom.''

In comments addressed to Bush, the group said:

''Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization.''

''Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected.''

Reuters 17 March 2004

See, al Qaeda are only pretending they want Bush to win, so that out of our hatred for them we'll elect Kerry, whom they really want to win.

Or no, they know that we'll figure that out, that we'll assume that they really want us to do the opposite of what they say they want us to do. So they figure that in our desire to foil their plan, we really will do what they say they want, based on our assumption that they will say the opposite of what they want. So instead they really are saying what they want.

Or no, it's actually an al Qaeda imposter, from a rival organization, hoping to discredit al Qaeda in the eyes of the Arab world, who all hate Bush.

Or no, it's actually al Qaeda hoping that people will think it's an imposter, so that they doubt al Qaeda's involvement in the Spain bombings.

Or no, this is just a plan to get the Big Computer at CIA headquarters to start thinking about these various possibilities until it becomes so confused that smoke starts to come out of the top ...