What will it be: Peace or War?


Bin Laden’s son proposes a truce.

The deux ex machina of all terrorists, or the next best thing, shows up as if a virgin birth, immune from what his father did over the last ten years or so to show his disfavor with the west which indicates several possibilities.

bin Laden doesn’t listen to his son, this son anyway; or that this son is on a mission to buy time (maybe the old man needs a weekend in a good four star hotel as a change of pace from dark, and freezing cold caves…) or that this is really the truth—or at least close to the truth!....

The last option of course being the most insane possibility.

Why would a leader who has sworn Jihad against the west, who has devoted his life to characterizing the west as all killers and “unholy” all of a sudden change its mind and become benign?….

Even a crummy novelist would have trouble with that plot line…

This would be the hardest idea to buy even someone willing to give the other guy the benefit of the doubt, it is hard to forget the tangible results of his hatred or the smile that crossed his lips when he recounted the success of his missions.

On the other hand, maybe, bin Laden sees the hand-writing on the wall.

Maybe he understands that it is very hard to control a killing mission from an obscure cave in the middle of the a**hole of the world.

Maybe “yes” and maybe “no.”

There were always questions about our luke-warm pursuit of bin Laden.

And these were raised by the Special Ops guys sent in to get him….

Several months late and with a ten man team; it seemed sort of a gesture rather than a real commitment. After all, if we got bin Laden, what would happen to this great instrument of fear that the White House had with which to punish, control and anesthetize the people.

The Nazi propaganda machine understood that you couldn’t have control without fear. .

There’s a collateral thought.

Bin Laden may understand that the hatred of him has allowed this president to intimidate the people of this land, to manipulate and control them with fear. Maybe he’d be satisfied if we just left the Middle East?

With the acquiescence of bin Laden, the people will be able to cast aside the yolk of fear.
And they will speak their mind—even getting rid of the Bush’s and Cheney’s.

Is he that complex a thinker?

I don’t know but it would be hard to rule out any of these possibilities.

In any event, his son coming forward poses all kinds of interesting scenarios.

But then again, we must remember that bin Laden is the son of a man who had fifty wives and scores of children….

Most Arab men don’t seem to listen to children who stray….

So this may be nothing but a tempest in a teapot.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, it’s a hopeful sign in a world increasingly living with hopelessness….


Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change

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