OT and on topic:
The bombs are falling, and the Nas and AMAT are up, so far. With each passing day, I become slightly more secure that 9/21 was the bottom. For the moment, I plan on lightening up my long positions (I hold no short positions, and won't unless the Nas gets over 2000), when we reach the upper end of the range where I started buying (35 for AMAT, 16 for NTAP, 30 for TXN, etc.).
It makes sense that a lot of leaders in Moslem countries want him dead, if only from a sense of self-preservation. Bin Laden and allied groups have sought the overthrow of many of those governments, and sent hit teams to kill their leaders, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and others. A few years ago, the Taliban murdered a bunch of Iranian diplomats. Indonesia is having a hard time holding itself together, and is fighting fundamentalist insurgencies. The terrorists and Taliban are a revolutionary movement, who seek to institute a form of Islam even more strict than in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
We may reduce Bin Laden to insignificance, and find his place taken by other movements, who advocate forms of Islam more in line with the mainstream, and who mainly seek (for nationalist reasons), the elimination of U.S. power (military, economic, cultural) in Moslem countries. Such an insurgency would have a much wider appeal, and be harder to fight. But easier to negotiate with. |
