[Mr Spock]

If Osama Bin Laden is alive, I have to wonder why he has such difficulty releasing actual videotapes rather than all these dumb audiotapes. Videotape technology has been with us for some time and is relatively cheap, compact, and widely available, virtually every bit as much so as audiotape technology. But hey, you're the one convinced he's still running around causing trouble. So where is he? What trouble?

Chances are that Bin Laden, if he's still alive, is in a cave somewhere. Video teleconferencing technology is probably the last thing you're going find in his lair regardless of how cheap it is. You probably won't find toilet paper and look at how cheap that is :). Even though he's only releasing audio tapes, it's enough to boost morale among his operatives. This is how he's causing trouble in my opinion. The man has the ability to influence dangerous people with just words.

I hate to break it to you but "Al Qaeda" operatives will (and probably have been) continue on regardless of whether OBL is alive. "Al Qaeda", whatever else it is, is not the Cult Of OBL, and even if he's still alive, finding and killing/capturing him would not stop "Al Qaeda" from doing whatever it's trying to do. The main thing OBL contributes to "Al Qaeda" is money and we can stop that even if we never do find his grimy remains.
I agree with you here by the most part. The only point I was trying to make is that as long as there is hope that Bin Laden is still alive, Al Qaeda is going to use the tapes as morale boosters. From what I understand, Al Qaeda terrorist see this as a war, where they hit us, then we hit them, and then they hit us back and so on. It would be better for the cause if we used most of our resources to find Bin Laden, dead or alive. If it would have been my call, Sadam would have been a lower priority.

[Dr. Frank fan]

Chances are that Bin Laden, if he's still alive, is in a cave somewhere. Video teleconferencing technology is probably the last thing you're going find in his lair regardless of how cheap it is.

Who mentioned "teleconferencing technology"? Sheesh.

Supposedly (because supposedly he's still alive), in that cave he's got an audiotape recorder, and presumably people are visiting him from the outside world to bring him blank tapes (and food, medicine, etc), and pick up the finished tapes and drop them in a mailbox to Al Jazeera. ERGO, those people, who are in contact with the outside world, and shuttling him food, tapes, medicine, etc., COULD stop at a market on the way and pick up a cheapo handheld video camera which accepts and records onto videocassettes.

Perhaps at the same place they bought the audiocassette recorder.

But they don't. Isn't that weird!! I find it puzzling.

Even though he's only releasing audio tapes, it's enough to boost morale among his operatives.

This is true. It's true even if that voice isn't really OBL - it's true if people merely think it's OBL.

It has no bearing on anything I'm saying per se.

This is how he's causing trouble in my opinion. The man has the ability to influence dangerous people with just words.

I see. In that case, I agree: someone surely is causing trouble, even if it's just some guy who's impersonating OBL, or splicing old sound bites of his, and making those tapes.

I'd be all for getting that person.

Where shall we send the military?

The only point I was trying to make is that as long as there is hope that Bin Laden is still alive, Al Qaeda is going to use the tapes as morale boosters.

I agree. Not much we can do about it.

It would be better for the cause if we used most of our resources to find Bin Laden, dead or alive.

I'm not sure I agree with this. "most" of our resources? You still haven't answered exactly where we're supposed to send all our soldiers. Also it's not so obvious to me that the cost-benefit analysis of finding Bin Laden (to reduce Al Qaeda "morale") vs. stabilizing Iraq would come out on the side of "leave Iraq now and let a civil war take place"...

A flawed assumption here is that all the "resources" we are using (or "wasting"/"distracting") in Iraq, could somehow be used in the "find bin Laden" effort. Look, we've got some thousands of soldiers in Iraq right now. We can't "use" them to Find Bin Laden because we don't have any real idea where to send them. Those soldiers aren't being "distracted" from Finding Bin Laden because there is no way for them to help find Bin Laden in the first place.

I mean I suppose we could build a giant camp in the middle of Afghanistan somewhere and then plop all our soldiers down in the middle of it - that way we could at least claim we're "using all our resources" on the Find Bin Laden effort ("our soldiers are in his last known position now") - but then what? They sit there and twiddle their thumbs? Because "Find Bin Laden" is not a task you can just throw "resources" at. Those "resources" need to be relevant to the task and they need to have something to do. Which is why I am still left asking: where on earth are we supposed to send our soldiers? What are the coordinates?

If it would have been my call, Sadam would have been a lower priority.

Gotcha. To me they're both high priorities. It's just that the soldiers we have in Iraq couldn't be prioritized into a Find Bin Laden effort even if we wanted to; these "resources" aren't even transferable to that effort unless we know where to send them.

Where shall we send them?