Since it's pretty clear that the "new" bin Laden message is just a clip from a message that apparently was filmed in 2001 and aired in May of 2002, many people are concluding that the PoS is dead.
It makes sense to me.
If bin Hidin' is dead, al Qaeda certainly doesn't want us - or even the rest of their little cult - to know. They make it sound like he's hiding out, bury him quietly somewhere in the mountains and tell not a soul. And if you need a little pick-me-up for the faithful that are dying in large numbers in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines and even Pakistan, you want the the guy who invented the kool-aid to say a few words. And if the big guy is dead, well, you trot out an old message, give a wink and a nod, then send the cattle out to be slaughtered.
Hiding his death from the West gives a-Q a victory, of sorts. It's certainly in their best interests to have us looking all over Pakistan and Afghanistan for him. It keeps our SF guys busy, gives the cut-and-runners in the U.S. Congress something to whine about and may ultimately help the anti-war nuts on the left gain The White House.
It also keeps the faithful from packing up their toys and going home.
Alive or dead, we'll probably never find his body... and that also foments the fear (and the necessary presumption) that he's still out there, somewhere...plotting, planning, scheming.
We just have to remember that this isn't a war only with Osama bin Laden, but rather with al Qaeda and everyone who thinks the same way that they do.
And we had better realize that before it's too late.
Alos blogging:
It is a theory I have held for sometime. They would never give us the satisfaction of knowing that we killed him, either.
Posted by: Flag Gazer | July 17, 2007 at 10:25 AM