We have to remember that we are not the audience for these kinds of declarations. bin Laden's long-term agenda is to establish a caliphate in the middle east--and his audience is fundamentalist Islamists and the Arab street.
Precisely what he demands is immaterial. Even if it were something the West could conceivably do, there would be no percentage in acquiescing to his demands. No matter what the west does, he and his ilk will find a way to spin it in a manner that supports this apocalyptic (verging on nihilistic) fundamentalist agenda. No matter what the west does, we will always be the infidels according to his worldview.
The only solution is to genuinely work for a democratized, modernized and secular middle east--a lofty goal, and a long-term one--but it would push lunatics like bin Laden out of the mainstream. Instead we waste our time toppling secular dictatorships and sinking massive military resources into a proverbial tarpit of a country. Which has the effect of radicalizing those countries, and thus serving bin Laden's agenda better than anything he could have done.
All because we have a president in the U.S. who doesn't understand that geopolitics isn't like Risk. It's not a series of zero-sum dice tosses where the largest army always wins.
I don't pretend that I have any answers--but when this guy still has as much traction as he did before 9/11, something isn't right. I just don't understand why he isn't seen as the lunatic sociopath that he is.
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