A Useful Reminder

....from Ray Ibrahim's The Al Qaeda Reader on what Osama bin Laden's big picture objective still is (via the Admiral):

The documents address many ideas supported by Al Qaeda, such as suicide bombings and violence against the west. Bin Laden and his allies use Muslim beliefs and laws to show that these actions are acceptable in certain cases, Ibrahim said.

He said the documents offer three options for non-Muslims - submit to Islam, live under Islam or die.

"The bottom line is the West is damned if they do and damned if they don't unless they accept the three choices," Ibrahim said. ...

In the documents, Bin Laden proclaims that the root of terrorism rested in Israel. However, Ibrahim said support for Al Qaeda would not dissipate even if the western world ceased supporting Israel.

"Once they do have the power, the next step will go back to waging a powerful jihad," he said.

I.e. the global war to conquer the entire planet for Islam, just as the "prophet" Mohammed commanded. And bin Laden believes he's going to do it, too. So do his allies, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahgarchy, who are his "senior partners" only in that they're closer to having nuclear weapons with which to incinerate the West than he is. Unless he can exploit the situation in Pakistan to his immediate advantage, that is.

The question remains as it has stood for the past six years: Will he be right?

I wish that question was a lot more rhetorical than it actually is.