Yes, it's an opinion piece, robomatic. I find it quite convincing, though, as opinions go. I think it's quite possible that what we hear about Osama Bin Laden in our media is very largely disinformation...particularly when it comes from Osama Bin Laden (or is purported to have come from him). I don't trust what Bin Laden says. I don't trust what the media say about him either. We live in a giant propaganda factory that is run by powerful interests by way of the mass media. They all have their particular axes to grind, and they are all happy to fabricate information, spread disinformation, and muddy the waters so as to get their own way in things. I have about as much trust in the mass media nowadays as I would if I was living in the society that George Orwell depicted in 1984. We're very close to what he depicted at this point. The media are not being used to inform the public, they're being used to shape and mould public perceptions, to scare people so that the public will go along with the next step in the plan, whatever the plan may be. And the plan is usually to fight a war somewhere. Or it's to sell drugs, antibiotics, innoculations, etc. Or it's to bail out banks and health insurance companies. Whatever. At any rate, it's not a plan that benefits the general public, that's for sure.

Al Qaeda is a bit player, a player that should always have been fought strictly through international police work, not with the armed forces. There is no justification for a military occupation of either Afghanistan or Iraq and there never was one. Neither one of them was ever a threat to the security of the USA. That's my opinion. It's also Eric Margolis's opinion, and I think he presents his case very effectively.