The absurdity of Osama bin Laden

But how does he get people to support his insanity?

I remember a scene from the movie “An American President” (yes I know, it is written by that same left winger who writes the West Wing but bear with me). An aide to the president says, “people want leadership, and in the absence of genuine leadership they will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone.” (Sound like anyone we know?)

“They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.”

The fictional President retorts that, “people don’t drink the sand ‘cause they’re thirsty/. They drink it ‘cause they don’t know the difference.”

Point taken. If these people don’t know the difference between sand (think bin Laden, the Taliban, and Islamic extremism) and water (think pluralism, democracy, freedom) then we have dropped the ball a bit. But we have picked it up and are running with it again.

Bush and Blair are making ‘our’ case and they couldn’t be doing a better job unless they were using the Osama cave studio set-but our case is sound.

In Bush’s recent press conference he expressed his concern. “And we've got to do a better job of making our case. We've got to do a better job of explaining to the people in the Middle East, for example, that we don't fight a war against Islam or Muslims. We don't hold any religion accountable. We're fighting evil. And these murderers have hijacked a great religion in order to justify their evil deeds. And we cannot let it stand.”

And in an unprecedented move Bush urged America’s children to earn or give a dollar for food and medicine in a program he called America's Fund for Afghan Children. This is incredible. Will it work? No. Is it something you would expect Clinton to do? Yes. But it is a start in making our case.

Now just imagine, if you can, Osama bin Laden raising money for the children of Iraq, or Afghanistan. It’s absurd because that isn’t in his game plan. His is one of terror-to the cave bin Laden!

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