[Jeff Higgins]

You guys should really take a look at what OBL has to say and drop the Bush thing. OBL is demanding a fundemental change in our lifestyle to that of a very hard-line form of Islam. He really does not care who our leader at the time happens to be. He really does not care about our presence in the Mid East. He cares about our values, morals, beliefs. He wants to force his upon us. He is a religious zealot to whom "worldly" things like who is in power or where we are have no meaning. His demands, since he believes they come from God Himself, are non-negotiable. Pulling out of the Mid East, or reducing our presence there, does nothing at all to appease this guy.

The other major point you seem to be missing is that his ideals and demands are representative of a population of religious zealots. They are not his and his alone. We will not be able to breathe a sigh of relief and assume the whole thing is over when he is gone. There is a movement among these people that we have to understand and learn to deal with. Focusing on one man, and thinking that if we deal with him the whole thing will just go away, is a very simplistic wrong answer to the problem. In that context it is very easy to understand what Bush was saying; focusing on OBL rather than the movement and ideals he represents would be a waste of resources.

He is only one piece (granted a very prominant one) of a much larger puzzle. Catching him may have some symbolic importance. To us, we caught the bad guy. To them, another martyr to embolden them. We have to look beyond him and see the big picture. His own words, if we read them and pay attention, will help us do that. Dragging Bush into this is merely a distraction that has the distinct danger of so clouding the discussion and analysis of OBL's words that we miss his message. That would be a mistake.