http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/al_qaida_bin_laden;_ylt=AqHLpiX_8CBQq0xLmbMDJkMwuecA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

If I read it right, Osama is all - we're coming up with a plan to attack US... but maybe we can truce.

1/19/2006 11:19:31 AM

we won't even give up like 6 female prisoners to save the life of some woman

let alone cheese

1/19/2006 11:20:14 AM

i dont think we negotiate w/ terrorists

noone does

1/19/2006 11:20:41 AM

IT WOULD BE NICE IF WE COULD DISCUSS THIS LATEST DEVELOPMENT

unfortunately, we're gonna have to discuss cheese instead

1/19/2006 11:21:15 AM

teh war on the t3rr0r must go on for decades

even if they offer to surrender it's gonna be perpetual war

1/19/2006 11:22:21 AM

yeah we can trust bin laden when he wants a truce.

When the enemy wants a truce, it means they're weak. Finish em off.

1/19/2006 11:26:24 AM

Even if bin Laden calls a truce, does that mean the organizations claiming to be affiliated with al Qaida will respect it? There have been questions as to just how much control he still wields over his network.

1/19/2006 11:27:35 AM

Even then, do we trust a word he says? These are people that send in suicide bombers to kill women and children in discos and pizza parlors. I'm sure they'll keep their word.

1/19/2006 11:28:43 AM

i still wonder what would happen in this country if they started using the "disco and pizza parlor" tactics here

i'd take it a lot more seriously than i've ever taken 9/11

1/19/2006 12:18:08 PM

I don't think we'll see that tactic here, for reasons I've stated before. Basically, there isn't a home-grown crop of American Muslims willing to blow shit up, so they have to import the "talent." For all our holes in security, it's still pretty costly and difficult to get your terrorist onto the continent, through border security, and to the target without detection.

That's to say nothing of the bombs themselves. Either you send them with the guy, which makes travel even more difficult, or he has to buy them here. While arms dealers probably aren't the most upstanding citizens in history, I have a sinking suspicion that many would not sell to a standard, Palestinian-style suicide bomber. It'd be high risk, both in the sense of getting caught, and in the sense that this guy is going to blow up an everyday place that you or your loved ones might be in.

At any rate, I don't see that happening, and I don't see us doing any negotiating with Osama that doesn't entail his complete and unconditional surrender.

1/19/2006 3:26:27 PM

if he'll tell us where the cheese is hiding i see no reason not to negotiate.

1/19/2006 3:29:16 PM

I'LL GIVE YOU A TRUCE IF YOU DON'T EAT THAT CHEESE

1/19/2006 7:10:33 PM

Quote :

"Even then, do we trust a word he says? These are people that send in suicide bombers to kill women and children in discos and pizza parlors. I'm sure they'll keep their word."

i agree with you there, but then again, him and his people kill for a reason; that americans are in muslim lands.

if america were to leave any and all muslim countries it is stationed in, yes i believe that you can trust him. there would be no reason for them to attack.

they warned all coutries to leave iraq, and no one left. then they bombed spain, and said if you leave, we will cause no more trouble. spain left iraq, and no trouble for spain anymore.

just so it is clear, i don't believe in means justify the ends, so i don't agree at all with bombing innocent civilians even if you have a proper cause. so, i don't agree with his policies of killing civilians to force america out, but THAT is THE reason he does it. if america pulled out, there would be no more reason for him.

and besides, this is nothing new, he has been indirectly saying this for a long time. after every attack, when a tape surfaces, he or some other high ranking member says this is because you are killing our people and occupying our lands, i.e., if you stopped doing that, we will stop doing what we do.

1/19/2006 9:28:31 PM

It's possible, but I'm not convinced.

Hitler said, "We won't kill anybody if you give us back the Rhineland," and then after he got that it was the Sudetenland, and so on. Maybe if we leave Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, he'll start demanding that American corporations abandon the region or unrealistically change their policies. Maybe they'll start demanding a return of historically Muslim lands. Maybe they'll start demanding that we break off ties from any country, Muslim or otherwise, with which they disagree. We're basically in a staring contest. If we blink, we lose, and we add a whole new level of legitimacy to the tactics of terrorism for a century to come.

Plus, Osama has made himself a powerful figure, a hero. His family isn't liable to take him back into the fold at this point, so he personally stands to do nothing but lose by quitting, regardless of what we give him.

Don't forget finally that he doesn't just want us to leave Muslim countries at the moment -- he wants us to abandon our ally in the region. Regardless of what you think about Israel, turning your back on your friends to save your own ass is lame.

Quote :

"spain left iraq, and no trouble for spain anymore."

This doesn't necessarily mean much. Attacking Spain now would make it obvious that Osama was just seeking appeasement. He might want to bomb them again, but for strategic reasons he'd be better off waiting until either we've given him the first round of what he wants OR enough time has passed that we don't realize what he's doing.

1/19/2006 10:59:52 PM

i dont care what you say. a suicide bomber in walmart would send us into a depression.

1/20/2006 12:27:18 AM

yessir

1/20/2006 12:30:58 AM

I'd still shop there. Something about that smiley. So comforting, so reassuring.

1/20/2006 12:40:23 AM

After all, the CIA used to fund them so that they wouldn't target Americans, and now thats turned on them. And targeting civilians is part of war. Same with bombing refugee camps....*cough* israel *cough*

1/23/2006 7:52:58 PM

Quote :

"Don't forget finally that he doesn't just want us to leave Muslim countries at the moment -- he wants us to abandon our ally in the region. Regardless of what you think about Israel, turning your back on your friends to save your own ass is lame."

Yeah, but if I had a friend that beat up a midget he probably wouldn't be my friend anymore.[/badanalogy]

1/23/2006 8:18:15 PM

Quote :

"Even then, do we trust a word he says?"

Obviously, what I'm about to say has limits...

But for what it's worth, I tend to believe that Osama bin Laden is a man of his word.

That doesn't mean that I wouldn't dump my last dollar for the opportunity to be locked in a ring with him in a fight to the death, but I do believe that he pretty much says what he means and means what he says.

I mean, half of that motherfucker's quarrel with America is the lack of strict moral absolutes in our culture (relative to his extreme brand of Islam).

Quote :

"Even if bin Laden calls a truce, does that mean the organizations claiming to be affiliated with al Qaida will respect it? There have been questions as to just how much control he still wields over his network."

THAT is what I find questionable at best.



and it doesn't really matter. Fuck him.

1/23/2006 8:31:22 PM

Osama is just someone terrorists or would be terrorists see as a man that gets things done. He funds operations that aren't even his. For example, 9/11 attack wasn't his or his organizations ideas. People bring him ideas or plans and if he likes it or thinks its doable then he'll fund it. So if osama says he'll draw a truce with the us, then doesn't mean the attacks will stop, it just means he will stop funding it. but others will just take his place and fund operations

1/23/2006 10:34:04 PM

Quote :

"Yeah, but if I had a friend that beat up a midget he probably wouldn't be my friend anymore."

A bad analogy, not because your friend isn't beating up the midget, but because that midget and all of his midget friends have been punching your friend in the face since he was born.

1/24/2006 12:38:19 AM

Israel is not our "friend". Weren't they caught spying on us recently? They're a strategic ally.

1/24/2006 12:53:07 AM

To suggest that we aren't spying on Canada would be down-right dishonest

1/24/2006 1:05:23 AM

hell

we're spying on ourselves

everybody is spying on everybody. that (^^) don't mean shit--I'm sure we're spying on them like it's cool.

1/24/2006 1:08:30 AM

^ Yeah, I realize there's lots of spies to go around.

It seems ridiculous to view the relationships between countries like friends though, unless you have some crooked, back-stabbing friends.

1/24/2006 1:10:42 AM

Quote :

"I mean, half of that *******'s quarrel with America is the lack of strict moral absolutes in our culture (relative to his extreme brand of Islam)."

You can't argue that America's morals are not lax. You can, however, argue that killing people over their lack of morals isn't exactly the moral high ground.

1/24/2006 8:05:36 AM

Quote :

"I mean, half of that *******'s quarrel with America is the lack of strict moral absolutes in our culture (relative to his extreme brand of Islam)."

We do have moral absolutes, it's just that we don't kill over them.

as ^ said.

1/24/2006 8:51:11 AM

Jan 20th: White House Spokesman Scott McClellan has stated that “the US will not negotiate with terrorists”.
Jan 26th: The U.S. military released five Iraqi women detainees Thursday, a move demanded by the kidnappers of an American reporter to spare her life.

Jan 26th: President Bush said today that Hamas, the radical Islamic party that prevailed in parliamentary elections there, is "a party with which we will not deal."
Feb 1st: President Bush invites Hamas over for a sleepover at his house. White House Spokesman Scott McClellan says they will "stay up late, watch scary movies, do nails."

1/26/2006 2:00:38 PM

^ As they said before, those prisoners were already slated for release prior to the demand. If we really were giving into their demands, we would have released all eight of them.

The Hamas issue is also conditional. If Hamas backs away from the call for the "destruction of Israel" and renounces the use of violence, then we'll be willing to deal with them.

1/26/2006 3:01:58 PM