SQUEAKS FROM A RAT HOLE
NEW YORK POST
Editorial
January 20, 2006
Osama bin Laden emerged from his rat hole long enough to release yet an other tape in which he taunts America. But beneath all the bluster, invective and threats may reside some real news: It seems that the evil Osama wants to sue for peace.
OK, the key word here is "seems." While the tape appears to be authentic, what Osama means — as opposed to what he says — is subject to interpretation.
He boasted yet again that a new attack "is being prepared and you'll see it in your homeland very soon." (If nothing else, that's a reminder that bin Laden has been unable to mount another attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.)
But he also made this offer: "We do not mind establishing a long-term truce between us and you, based on just conditions," adding that "both parties of the truce will enjoy stability and security to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan."
Whatever happened to the terrorist leader who was going to wipe the Great Satan from the face of the earth?
Following this week's U.S. airstrikes in Pakistan — which killed four or five top al Qaeda terrorists — it sounds like someone is desperate to show the jihadists that he's still in charge.
But Osama's offer appears to show the wisdom — and the success — of President Bush's policies in fighting the War on Terror. As White House spokesman Scott McClellan noted yesterday, an estimated two-thirds of al Qaeda, including major leaders, has been eliminated by U.S. military efforts.
Moreover, al Qaeda and its surrogates in the Iraqi terrorist insurgency are coming under increased attack in the Muslim world for having killed and maimed so many Iraqi civilians.
Indeed, the insurgents have long been battling Sunni Muslims in Iraq as much as they are the U.S.-led Coalition.
Which could be another reason why Osama would try to convince the world that he's running a kinder, gentler al Qaeda (even as his fellow terrorists are threatening to behead a Christian Science Monitor journalist).
In fact, no one in Iraq seems to be listening much to Osama: His last recording, made in late 2004, called on Iraqis to boycott a national election — that is, three wildly successful national plebiscites ago.
Bin Laden has offered a "truce" before, of course — but never to America. The European governments who got the last offer, in April 2004, turned it down cold.
Osama apparently thinks the American public will be more responsive, given that "the majority of your people want this war to end and opinion polls show the Americans do not want to fight the Muslims on Muslim land." President Bush, he said, "tried to ignore the polls that demanded that he end the war in Iraq."
(Who writes his stuff — Howard Dean? John Murtha? Sure sounds like it.)
Indeed, he assured Americans he can be trusted to carry out his "truce," because "we are a nation that Allah banned from lying and stabbing others in the back." (But not, apparently, from committing mass murder.)
Yes, al Qaeda may, in fact, still be capable of further attacks. Certainly it proved as much in Madrid and London.
But this latest tape makes Osama sound a little, well, desperate.
Contrary to what President Bush's critics suggest, the War on Terror is winnable — and it is being won.
And it will continue to be prosecuted.
As Scott McClellan rightly promised yesterday: "We do not negotiate with terrorists — we put them out of business."
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