Lets talk about this Bin Laden thing.  Do board members really believe killing him will solve much?  

I don't really think so.  This fundamentalism thing is so much bigger than one person.  I think our focus on Osama is a remnant of our old nation-state mindset - kill the leadership and the movement falls apart.  But, did MLK's death kill the civil rights movement?  Will Arafat's death (or life, for that matter), affect Hamas?  Will Castro's inevitable death kill Cuba (ok, bad example, but the bastard is goin' down!).  Bin Laden would be powerless if there weren't teeming hoardes of people angry at Western Culture and its pied piper, the US and its mini-me, Israel.  The number of rich oil sheiks ready to replace Osama is probably terrifying.  If we think invading Iraq creating martyrs, wait until we crucify Osama.

Please don't interpret this as a right wing excuse for not capturing Bin Laden.  I think Bush desperately wants to catch him, if only b/c of the terrific press it will produce.  But, other than a little emotional release for our revenge gene, I'm not sure killing him does much.  We have much bigger problems to solve.

side note: i need to stop getting high, its killing my fingers!

What happened to Bush's mantra about getting him "dead or alive"?

Of course capturing him, or better yet, killing him in his tracks is important.  It will set a standard that every wannabe terrorist will have happen to them if they kill our citizens.  If a rich sheik realized that he will be tracked relentlessly and killed in the most certain way, I doubt that he will be hankering to become the next Osama Bin Laden.  But if we continue to fail to singularly track, find and kill Bin Laden, yes, droves of rich sheiks will be hot to take his place once he does die (probaly from natural causes, as opposed to from a well placed bullet).
    Are you trying to soften the failure that has Osama Bin Laden healthy, safe and mouthing off almost four years after he was responsible for the most vile, gross act of murder in US history?  Please bury your head in sand somewhere, you are safer to all of us in that position.
    There is nothing that Osama Bin Laden can say to justify what he was responsible for on 9/11/2001 - he has to die.  And there is, in my opinion, nothing that can justify not going after him in a singularly focused fashion, to make his death a reality.

It appears to me that he is saying just that.  What bullshit.

Wait a sec - I'm not saying that we shouldn't have as a top priority to waste his ass.  Nor am I making excuses for the Bush administration's failure to catch him (read the post).  We should find and kill him and we haven't and that sucks.

I agree that it is also important to go after him to show terrorists we mean business.    I guess my concern is that we are putting so much value on getting this one guy.  He is one battle in a gigantic struggle.  There are legions of militants who see Osama as their Martin Luther King - as friggin twisted as we might think that sounds.  Killing him might actually embolden others - something that will make things even tougher in the short term and test our resolve.  Spain has already shown they don't have it; I hope we do.

My rant was stimualated by my mixed emotions on Arafat's illness.  While I was encouraged that the bastard's time if done, it doesn't make me feel any better about the future of Palestinian-Israeli relations.  The conflict is so much bigger than one individual.

-- Modified on 10/30/2004 7:54:34 PM

Here's where Bush has also failed: we've lost the chance of trying him in international court, and thus setting a precedent against his terrorism in international law.  Similar to the precedent made at Nuremburg.  

But given how all the the precedents from Nuremburg have been allowed to lapse and have been left unenforced, that's perhaps too lofty a goal anyway.  

In today's world, we need to kill him for the same reason Bonnie & Clyde were killed: because he's a bloodstained-spree murderer, who hasn't cared how many innocent lives destroys, however he justifies it.  

/Zin

WE are the "mini-me" to Israel.

Don't you find the timing of OBL's new tape curious?

Pick up the current Vanity Fair.

We must get Osama, period.  We can deal with the rest one at a time if need be when their heads pop up, an they will if we are in fact resolute.

Bill Maher basically made the same point Friday nite.  He compared killing Osama to Ray Kroc dying.  McDonalds was far more powerful than Ray himself and his death, if anything, was inspirational to the rank and file.

Let's track, capture and kill his ass, but realize its not worth much other than a slight deterrent for others and a feeling of revenge for Americans.