Troll, you and various others have repeatedly said that "Bin Laden and his people are serious about establishing Islamic (Sharia) Law as the ruling principle for the whole world".

Yeah. Uh-huh. Perhaps they are. That's what they say, is it?

Well, given the fact that that is an idea about as realistic as...converting the whole world to Catholicism...or...replacing the automobile with the camel...or...getting the whole world to become vegetarians and join nudist colonies and worship Jerry Lewis...why does it trouble you so much? (grin)

Why not worry about the far more likely things that could happen, such as another war or another terrorist attack of a really large sort in the USA? (not that I'm implying you don't worry about those things...but...)

I mean, really, it's just ludicrous for anyone to imagine that he can convert the whole world to his religion at this point in history, and it rates a great big laugh. It is not what springs to my mind as the most worrisome thing about Mr Bin Laden, because it's patently impossible to do it. So WHAT if he says he intends to do that? Keep your mind on the real situation on the battlefield and you are in a position to formulate real strategy, right?

What Bin Laden would like to do, realistically speaking, is this:

1. Get foreign troops out of Saudi Arabia. (And why wouldn't he want to do that?)
2. Get western military forces out of the Middle East. (and why wouldn't he want to do that?)
3. defeat or destroy Israel (here's where his gameplan starts becoming quite unrealistic. The Isrealis are armed to the teeth and they have nukes. They will not go down without taking Mecca, Medina, Cairo, Tehran, and the rest of the Arab world with them. I imagine Osama knows that, so how is he going to get around it?)

Beyond that, Bin Laden is just blathering at the mouth in a way that sounds good to his followers. No one is going to convert the whole world to one religion, and anyone who says he is going to is either insane or is just making a big noise to impress other people and rally support.