Tony…
We need to shut down the production line of fanatical suicide bombers.
Pattern bombing just won’t do that. Instead it would lead the average Pashtun to conclude that we were worse than the Soviets and deserved the ultimate vengeance. The Soviets proved that killing 20% of the male population was still not enough to change their mindset.
Of course any such bomb-for-all gambit would generate horrific blow-back on the world stage.
I’d say that the precision strikes against the shadow army are the way to go and that they are working so well that even H sees the logic of it.
Of course Osama is dead. His burial rite was posted to the front page of the NY Times quite a while back. Remember it? The photo showed his black guard neatly arrayed in front of his grave with other players — rank by rank — giving the boss the last big send-off.
It is not in our geo-political interest to openly admit that OBL is at room temperature. It is cute to listen to the CIA ‘verify’ that this or that tape is a genuine OBL recording.
Well I’ll remind all Club members that Churchill’s famous WWII recordings are NOT HIS VOICE. They were recorded in a studio by a professional who was able to imitate Winston to a tee. That’s the reason for their high quality and the complete absence of backround noise. The reason was simple: Churchill gave the speech in Parliament, off the cuff, and no microphones were set up for him. When it was realized that the speech was fantastic his government immediately wanted him to record it for radio broadcast. However, for some reason, he was too busy and so the professional was set to the task. And so, ALL of the speeches that you’ve heard were not Churchill, though he crafted them.
In such a manner AQ has resorted to a stand-in. In AQ’s situation a lousy recording is preferred.
No sensible person can believe that OBL could possibly stay away from a camera in all these years while his number 2 is constantly cranking out press releases. — Give me a break.
I would not be surprised to see AQ and Omar having Quetta time this summer.
