One of the odd things in our current news cycle is this notion that the US is "trying to catch" Osama.....
Probably the worst thing that could happen to the US "war on terror" would be to capture Bin Laden. While Bin Laden may be "public enemy No 1" inside the US, and even in officialdom outside the US; Bin Laden has a huge following among many Muslim publics. Even Tom Friedman of the NYTimes noted this phenomenon in Paris, where he interviewed two Muslim girls about the head scarf law, and discovered that they were big fans of Osama!
Capturing or killing Bin Laden at this stage would be the worst thing the west could do to THE LEADERSHIP of our allies on the terrorist hunt.....
My hunch is that leaders like "Moochie" Musharaff of Pakistan know this.... Yes, they will hunt for Osama, but sort of: "better hide, ready or not, here we come....." It is a half-hearted hunt.
Having Bin Laden in custody of the west would bring the East-West tenision to a boiling point. Governments would fall to Islamist factions immediately.....The Arab Street would boil over....
Or, as Dubya might naively put it: WHOLE LOTTA DEMOCRACY GOIN' ON!
For better or worse, Osama symbolizes the plight of the Muslim peoples all over the world.... This is NOT merely my opinion, it's just the facts! And I've always found "facts" to be a good starting point when forming "opinions." So, I suppose I am somewhat unique in that regard......
With all these efforts to "democratize" the Muslim nations that support the Palestinian cause of statehood on the West Bank;
Little has been done about the western backed cold war autocracies....especially the Saudis.
And worse, once "democratized," many of these "western projects" are still of doubious value to Israel and the US.
Consider:
Kosovo: now in the hands of the Albanian mafia. If terror comes to the west it will likely pass through Kosovo!
Iraq: Under indirect control of the Iranian Shiite Mullahs in Iran.
Lebanon: With the rising star being Hezbollah now.
And on the West Bank and Gaza: Hamas rules defacto while Abbas rules dejure!
That's what Tony's little confab was all about.....Making Abbas seem real to the Palestinian people and to the world at large. (And did you notice Tony's profuse apology to Israel for doing so? He sort of said: This doesn't mean anything. It's all still "square one" and Israel can stay in the West Bank settlements for as long as it wants!)
And that is the real problem....the settlements on the West Bank.
Oddly that is the issue no one dares to discuss. As long as Sharon feels that the West supports Israeli settlements on the West Bank...nothing will change. And Sharon will not allow a Palestinian state to be formed....outside of Gaza.
And the Palestinians and the Muslim world will never accept that.
Solve the West Bank Settlements Issue.....And you can forget about Osama....he will simply be a "Muslim problem" not a problem for the West.
But you can't solve a problem that you can't even discuss........ Think about it.
