Bin Laden Tape on Iraq

The thing that always strikes me about Bin Laden is how hysterical he remains all the time in his pronouncements, which contrasts starkly with his calm personality. In the tape released Saturday via al-Jazeera, he said Iraq was the decisive battle against the West. But this is simple minded. Iraq might not be decisive to anything. It might just muddle through. Moreover, the Sunni fundamentalits who idolize Bin Laden are unlikely to be very influential in a Shiite-majority Iraq, which also has many Kurds. Al-Qaeda's kind of ideology is strongly Sunni, and it can never be more than a fringe movement in Iraq. On the other hand, of course, for large numbers of Sunni Arabs to go over to Bin Laden might cause a lot of trouble for the US. Bin Laden also tried to influence places like Japan, already skittish about sending troops to Iraq, by menacing them with Suicide bombings if they help the US with troops.

Most of all, that Bin Laden is still around to threaten the US, now with regard to Iraq, is a travesty and Bush needs to resolve this problem before taking on yet other problematics.