What does it mean when Osama comes out and pleads with the U.S. citizens to agree to a truce with him (i.e. don't re-elect Bush, i.e. elect Kerry). Osama and his chorus line have been threatening the defeat of the U.S. and global victory for Islam for years. "Streets run with blood", "Infidels will burn", "Yada, yada, yada".
But now all of a sudden he's out with a desperate plea that we just all get along. You leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone.
Well, it could mean one of two things.
It could translate as: "I've given up hope of winning the war. Please let me live." Which would be a correct assessment of his situation, except for the fact that Osama is too mentally deranged and psychopathically arrogant to ever realize it, much less admit it.
No, the real motive is quite different. Osama has realized that another four years of Bush raining down fire on terrorists will make it awfully hard to recruit new targets for the U.S. Armed Forces. He fears Bush and knows that his only hope of winning is to get rid of Bush. But how to do it?
He can't say (although he would no doubt love to), "Don't vote for Bush or in the name of glorious and peaceful Islam we will sever your infidel children's heads", because he knows Americans will strike back when sufficiently provoked.
And he can't say, "Vote for Kerry", because most Americans (with the exception of the one who made that fine "Fahrenheit 9/11" movie) would see through that. Not even most liberals are quite at the point where they're willing to follow explicit commands from a terrorist.
So instead Osama's tried something more subtle: he's offered a change. He's banking on the hope that enough Americans want a change from war so badly that they're willing to take the word of the world's premiere terrorist, out of nothing more than wishful thinking. And he's left it up to them to judge which candidate is most likely to accept his offer. If Americans want change, only John Kerry will offer it to them. Bush won't change; he's in this war until the end.
The problem for Americans is that Osama bin Laden won't change either, in spite of his offer to the contrary. In war change only comes about by mutual agreement or by the clear defeat of one combatant. If Osama were serious, then John Kerry could legitimately offer Americans change, because it's clear that John Kerry is looking for an excuse to cut and run. Winning a war - particularly a difficult war - requires fortitude, steadfastness, and an unyielding commitment to principle. John Kerry has none of these things. So the only way Kerry can deliver change is to come to an arrangement with Osama bin Laden. So in this latest video, Osama offered such an arrangement. Which the U.S. should utterly reject, even if Osama were completely sincere. He slaughtered 3,000 Americans and so there is only one arrangement America ought to offer: his head on a pole in the Rose Garden.
But Osama isn't sincere. This is a fight to the death for him, too. This latest tactic doesn't mark a shift in his purpose. He's fighting the same war he was three years ago. He's just trying to get rid of an opponent who's as serious about it as he is, and replace him with one whom he has a chance of defeating.
Americans already know George Bush's answer to Osama's offer. Sadly they also know what Kerry's, like Neville Chamberlain's before him, eventual answer would be. Tomorrow we discover how many Americans are willing to believe Osama's worth bargaining with.
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