Osama bin Losin - His latest videotape is far from a show of strength.

opinionjournal.com ^ | Wednesday, November 3, 2004 | Claudia Rosett

[crushelits]

Flattering though it is to have the eyes of the world on America and our election, let's take a quick postvote moment to recall that America, despite its might, is not the global alpha and omega; it is neither the source of all the world's problems nor the solution. By the same token, while last week's videotape from that tall thin Swedophile purporting to be bin Laden was addressed to the American people in particular, the intended audience was clearly much larger. The world was invited to witness bin Laden swelling in self-importance to near-Michael Moore proportions as he came out with his own latest video hit, presenting himself as a man in a position to parley with American voters over matters of life, death and our democratic system.

Bin Laden is a cold killer, which is the sole reason he cannot be entirely dismissed as just some crackpot with a camera. But one gets the sense that along with sitting around watching "Fahrenheit 9/11," he has soaked up maybe a few too many old James Bond flicks--the kind in which the villain shacks up inside a volcano with a fake rollback lake on top, a pond of pet piranhas below, and a set of threats and demands meant to sway the world. That sort of stuff does sell movie tickets. But let's set aside for a moment the words of Hollywood Osama, posturing at his lectern and counseling American voters on "the ideal way to avoid another Manhattan." If the medium is the message, let's take a broader look at what's really going on.

Continues

[AmericaUnited]

The tape did strike me as very weak, as if Osama was begging us to let up on him.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. bin Laden for his endorsement of John Fraud Kerry.

You made all the difference, Osama. I don't know how we can ever repay you, other than capturing you, giving you a fair trial and hanging you by the [INSERT BODY PART HERE] until dead.

[livius]

Apart from the raw threat to kill more innocents, this tape amounts to nothing more than a grab bag of ill-informed observations and hallucinatory arguments, an ad about Osama's own importance--the sort of stuff you'd expect a sociopath to come up with after three years in a cave, and the kind of thing that, absent bin Laden's appetite for murder, no one with a day job would look at twice.

Excellent article!

Another point is that historically, in Muslim warfare (in medieval Spain, for example), when Muslim forces are loosing, they always ask for a "truce." This is intended for nothing but rearming and regrouping, but it is definitely a concession of weakness.

[cripplecreek]

I think the Afghan election did more damage to him than we can calculate.

[MrConfettiMan]

Re: Osama, "He's dead, Jim."

>>Which brings us to his basic message: "Do as I say, and you won't get hurt."

It appears America's reply to this was a loud, "FO".

[He Rides A White Horse]

The tape did strike me as very weak, as if Osama was begging us to let up on him.

Because he was. He struck me as a man desperate for a Kerry victory. He tried to act concilatory (albeit in a perverse way). That duck didn't hunt. There is no reconciliation with a man who murdered thousands of our countryman on 9-11.

He knew that he would continue be hunted relentlessly if the President was victorious......and it appears that he'll have another four years of looking over his shoulder.

Good.

[LtKerst]

Find him and Kill him...No trial no last meal

Just a bullet and a photo with a DNA sample.

Then its on to Iran....and all the Mullahs.

No mercy for the Mullahs. they are all guilty of Murder.

[He Rides A White Horse]

They are undoubtably quaking in their sandals.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Today is a really bad day to be a terrorist/ terrorist supporter.