Thank you for putting up examples of your highly florid crocodile tears Keith - they'll do very nicely as starters, but lots more to choose from.
Excuse me for not joining you in turning this thread into yet another pointless slanging match between us, in deference to those who wish continue discussing the topic in hand - couldn't if I wanted to - off to sunny (I hope) Corfu tomorrow.
On topic.
Despite what has been claimed above nobody here has expressed the slightest degree of support or sympathy for Osama bin Laden; that remains a figment of the imagination of those wishing to defend the indefencible (don't you just know your point has struck home when your opponents deliberately distort what you have to say?)
Kidnapping, false imprisonment in intolerable conditions, torture, assasination, indescriminate killing... these are the things we associate with terrorism, yet these have become the accepted practices of those supposedly involved in George Bush's "fight against tourism" - the 'anti-terrorists' are becoming indistinguishable from those they are fighting.
Iraq and Afghanistan have proved that this war cannot be won militarily; it might be contained for a while, but it is there waiting in the wings, ready to bring about more 9/11s or 7/7s.
Al Qaeda is a world wide, non- connected, non-organistion; four replacements for bin Laden were immediately identified following his death, scattered all over the Middle East - I wonder if the intention is to kill them all - then the ones that follow - then the ones that follow them......
As I see it, the only way to oppose them is to cut off their support; to attempt to win the hearts and minds of their would-be followers. This won't be done by invading sovereign territory, endangering the lives of innocents and humiliating governments in order to assassinate somebody whose strategic role was, at best, highly questionable and who is as replacable as member of any pub quiz team.
With the events in countries like Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, there are signs of a desire for a break with the old ways - this cowboys and Indians shoot-out is no way to make the best of welcome developments at a time they could go either way.
Jim Carroll