[GOPJ]

Osama is overplaying his hand. Within a few years the West won't need ME oil - and either will the rest of the world. When that time comes, the ME will have nothing. No products, no artificial means to prop up their 17th Century ways, and no friends in the world.

Just as the UAE is looking to a time when oil has stopped flowing, so should the rest of the Arab world. Take away the oil and the whole ME (every Arab State in that region put together) has the GDP of Denmark. In other words, nothing. On the world stage the ME would go from swagger to homelessness ... and it would happen with the same great speed that money flowed into the region 40 years ago...

Osama might mean what he says, but the West is powerful. Vietnam was a cultural loss, not a military loss. He knows and doesn't know that... In some ways Osama "gets" this culture - in other ways he misses the obvious. But this I know, if Osama is looking for a fight, he'll get the fight of his life. We will hunt down and kill every one of them - if it takes the next 50 years. And both sides will be hurt. And Osama will drag that region of the world down with him. For millions of tomorrows. And the West, being stronger, will come back. The ME will die. There must be a better way.

This is so sad.

[robowombat]

I can only hope that the US and the western coalition would be a stalwart as you believe in prosecuting the war without a name against the OBL group.

[nicollo]

Take away the oil and the whole ME (every Arab State in that region put together) has the GDP of Denmark.

Uhm, try Botswana, or someplace else, not Denmark:

GDP Saudi Arabia: $281.2 billion (2005 est.)
GDP Denmark $254.1 billion (2005 est.)

Per capita, Denmark is double Saudi Arabia. Oh, and S.A. is running 10% unemployment (males -- add womins and it's, what, 60%?)