The Washington Post has the text of Osama bin Laden's (or some canny impostor's) rant against the putative "Crusaders'" imminent war in Iraq.

As Joe Conason notes in today's Salon , one part of the speech has gotten shockingly little coverage, not least by Secretary Powell. Bin Laden actually MOCKS the U.S. forces as "weak" and "cowardly," and after exhaustively (and incorrectly) detailing the various bombs that rained down on him and the "300" mujahadeen (as if these fanatics were true Afghan freedom fighters) he trumpets the fact that he was able to escape!

Whether or not he's alive (I'm not so sure, but if he is, he's in Pakistan, which has been quite silent of late, hasn't it?), don't you think this is a serious provocation? I don't doubt that the Pentagon, CIA, FBI and Heimwehr, I mean, Homeland Sec. are all wondering how on earth can they get this guy's head and put it up on a pike to shut him up for good.

I heard just a little about this yesterday. The general thought was that Bin Laden will benefit greatly from having the US pull the trigger in Iraq. Yes, we will overrun a basically defenseless country. Yes, we will kill/exile/imprison Saddam in short order. Yes, we will either manufacture the dreaded WMD for the television crews or claim our bombing was so precise that they are all destroyed.

However, we will also take possession of an entire Muslim country. And we will place more US soldiers in the Middle East -- something that was one of the provoking factors for 9/11.

Osama sees this as an opportunity to rally even more followers to his cause. Why would he not want us to destroy Saddam's regime (he hates Hussein), and further damage our own image in the Muslim world. Osama has nothing to lose here. He does have the potential of gaining much. If I were him, I would be egging GWB on as well.

Bin Laden hates Hussein precisely because he does not consder him a good Muslim, nor Iraq a Muslim state.

The reason we should not initiate a war in Iraq is because it is wrong to single out one bum among many just because it benefits us economically.

We've done this for too long and eventually we'll pay.

[ February 14, 2003, 02:58 PM: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

I hate to say it, and I hope someone in Washington is really thinking about this, but a war in Iraq or NO war in Iraq is a win-win situation for Osama (or whoever's channeling him these days).

If we destroy Iraq and kill lots of its citizens, it will upset the Muslim world and provide Osama with more anti-U.S. fodder. If we pull back now, he will certainly try to take some credit for making us step back from the brink of war, even though he appears to be marginal to the war plans.

Why can't they (we?) find him--or at least his bones?