Hudna Anyone?

Belmont Club is correct in saying that this Bin Laden (the latest tape’s iteration) seems to want a cease fire of some kind:

It is important to notice what he has stopped saying in this speech. He has stopped talking about the restoration of the Global Caliphate. There is no more mention of the return of Andalusia. There is no more anticipation that Islam will sweep the world. He is no longer boasting that Americans run at the slightest wounds; that they are more cowardly than the Russians. He is not talking about future operations to swathe the world in fire but dwelling on past glories. He is basically saying if you leave us alone we will leave you alone. Though it is couched in his customary orbicular phraseology he is basically asking for time out.

A time out in Islamic parlance, as many of us know by now, is a hudna, which is not a peace settlement but more of a cease fire while they lick their wounds and re-arm for the fight to come. BC continues:

The American answer to Osama’s proposal will be given on Election Day. One response is to agree that the United States of America will henceforth act like Sweden, which is on track to become majority Islamic sometime after the middle of this century. The electorate best knows which candidate will serve this end; which candidate most promises to be European-like in attitude and they can choose that path with both eyes open. The electorate can strike that bargain and Osama may keep his word. The other course is to reject Osama’s terms utterly; to recognize the pleading in his outwardly belligerent manner and reply that his fugitive existence; the loss of his sanctuaries; the annihilation of his men are but the merest foretaste of what is yet to come: to say that to enemies such as he, the initials ‘US’ will always mean Unconditional Surrender.

Well, we all know what side Wretchard and I are on. But what’s interesting is how this post dovetails with John Kelly’s already cited here. The peculiar moveon.org rhetoric of this new Bin Laden sounds as if it wasn’t written by BL at all, but by some group with an eye cocked on Tuesday. That the CIA has vaguely verified the tape means little. They always have. As many have noted, they have a continuing interest in the existence of a live Bin Laden. Both sides do.

But then, I could be wrong… It probably won’t be the first time in the last five minutes.