Bin Laden intervenes in Iraq

And according to Juan Cole has messed up big time. This time I agree, although Cole is becoming more and more....what's the word ?.....Neutralised, I think should cover it.

Anyway, OBL has released a tape which urges Iraqis not to vote and calling them 'infidels' if they do. It also expresses support for Zarqawi. Leaving aside the fact that absolutely no OBL tape is above suspicion (and this one, as usual, benefits the US greatly) this should make it clear once and for all what the divide in Iraq (and by extension in the WOT) actually is and is not.

For a start it clarifies the fact that Iraqis are massively behind Sistani. And that they have no time for Wahabism and fundamentalism - from Osama, Zarqawi or anyone else.

This however is not the picture we are spoon-fed from the media and not a picture the wingers can assimilate. To them the Iraqi quagmire is a quagmire because of fundie/Wahahbi/Islamist support.

The failure of OBL's latest tape shows this is not the case. It essentially proves that the resistance is just that - a resistance by a civilian population. Obl and Zarqawi are marginalised.

Cole interprets this tape as evidence that OBL is washed up and I agree (assuming that the tape is real - something I am not 100% convinced of) but where does that leave the WOT and Iraq ?

If OBL is finished, if the Iraqis do want democracy (for that is what their rejection of AQ means - what they vote for is a different issue) and if Sistani is a 'man of peace' then really we are very near a real 'mission accomplished'.

So there's no problem. Except there seems still to be. Say it with me: Shi'i Islamic State.

I am coming more and more to consider the possibility that OBL is somehow on the payroll. He seems to intervene at critical times and his interventions, although seeming to work against the US, always in the end work in their favour. So it is here. This is a last ditch attempt to stop Iraqis voting - because they will vote for what the US (and Osama) does not want: a Shi'i government.

Possibly, but that would mean he is out of touch - not just with the west but with the Islamic world too.

My problem with that is that he is shown as being 'diabolically clever' when the propaganda situation requires it (ie - calling the reaction to Madrid bombings correctly when everyone thought it would have opposite effect) and also 'diabolically stupid' (ie now).

He can't be both can he ?

Like I say, I am coming more to believe he is dead (much evidence for this exists), that the US know he is dead (hence the lack of hunting) and that they are cobbling together edited tapes (from old genuine ones they have withheld possibly) and releasing them as part of a propaganda war - sometimes successfully, sometimes with their usual laughable incompetence.

It's called logic and analysis - don't worry, you don't need to know that stuff.....carry on........

I can, but can you learn ?

Ok, but it's one strike and you're out.

I'm afraid we have to start with the basics, kind of ABC if you will. But first, in order to know how to proceed, I will need to conduct a kind of literary rorschach test. Please give your opinion on the following piece of writing:

That's strike one - see you're unteachable.

Permissable answers would have been along the lines of:

This is stupid, what are you trying to say, skip this crap let's get on with it etc etc......

Instead you think you know all the answers before you even know the question. Ergo, you cannot possibly want to learn something new - any imputation to the contrary on your behalf is a blatant lie.

The story was about Mr ***ing Patel for ****'s sake Hello ??????????

You lose. Don't bother me any further with this juvenalia.

You are the weakest link.

Goodbye.