Bin Laden

Either the US intelligence services are terminally incompetent or the administration doesn't much care to capture Bin Laden. I mean, the man is a cousin of a business associate of the Bush family. Business 101: never arrest friends or family members of your business associates.
 
Bin Laden is irrelevant, dead or no.

What's interesting, if this is the real deal, is the surrender talk.

That's really not in line with his islamist philosophy. It's a good sign, for the yanks
 
John Uskglass said:
it is bin Laden, sillies. Bin means 'son of'.
Click to expand...

Then at the start of a sentence I would spell it "Bin Laden", just like I would spell "son of" as "Son of" at the start of a sentence.

Yeesh.
 
Kharn said:
Bin Laden is irrelevant, dead or no.

What's interesting, if this is the real deal, is the surrender talk.

That's really not in line with his islamist philosophy. It's a good sign, for the yanks
Click to expand...

On NPR they're saying the opposite, that his offer of a truce before further hostilities has roots in Islamic culture (can't remember the examples they offered) and that this will further 'endear' him to muslims since they're all aware of the precedents. They also pointed out that he has a better record of making good on his promises than any politician around now.

Even if the above is stupid, the guy can still scare the shit out of most Americans with his threats, so even if he can't deliver on them he's far from irrelevant.
 
If it's a surrender -- which I doubt -- it'd be pretty absurd.

I think it's more likely that it's an offer of peace, which would be fully legitimate in respect to Islamic tradition.

Just because muslims have a higher tendency to blow up doesn't mean diplomacy isn't compatible with muslim faith.

There's a quite established neighbourhood-level system to settle disputes out of court -- in Iran or wherever it was -- based entirely on a dialogue under the supervision of a neutral mediator.
Both parties hand over their traditional daggers to the mediator and then discuss the problem until the two parties have come to an agreement. As far as I know, the system is even based on the teachings of the Q'oran.

There's still that thing with blowing up at random, tho, but that's just a weird interpretation of religious warfare.
 
Ashmo said:
Just because muslims have a higher tendency to blow up doesn't mean diplomacy isn't compatible with muslim faith.
Click to expand...

It's very compatible with muslim faith. Extremely so.

The problem being that good old bin Laden isn't a muslim, he's an islamist.

And diplomacy, surrender and anything that doesn't involve killing anyone that isn't an islamist do not fit into the islamist agenda
 
I guess word hasn't spread around yet, going by that link at the top of the thread, but the gist of Bin Laden's statement is this: He's offering a truce with the US provided that they vacate all muslim countries. If they don't leave, the US will have terrorist attacks on it's soil very soon. The time frame for either wasn't said while I was listening.

So, there's no "surrender" on his part, either overtly or implied, and the CIA has verified that it is his voice. I just recalled that one of the precedents for this had something to do with islamic leaders during the crusades (Saladin, maybe?).
 
welsh said:
Jesus H Christ!!!

How long is it going to be till this prick is captured and killed.
Click to expand...
So, you expect one bearded, robed, religious leader and usurper of political power to ... never mind.

;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top