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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mani1 who wrote (139128)	9/18/2001 1:32:40 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1580429

Re <<What's your thought re my concern that if we kill bin Laden, we turn him into a martyr? This man is very dangerous...to his people he is a saint, and to the West and other Muslims, he's the devil. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.>> I disagree. I think he is devil of all devils. What he is doing is against all teaching of Islam. Even worse, he is turning people misfortune and misery into hatred and unending cycle of violence. It does not get much lower than that. Based on my experience, I can excuse (well not really) Palestinians cheering in refugee camp, but what Bin Ladden is doing is pure evil. Mani, thanks for your comments. Clearly, your insights are important and informative. However, I think you may underestimate bin Laden's popularity among the lower classes. The fact that he turned his back on great wealth in order to fight the good fight for Islam is a very potent attraction. I can easily see Bagdad kids making him into an inspirational leader on the level of Shaquille O'Neal or a Michael Jordan. Are you familiar with the story behind Evita Peron of Argentina? Just briefly she was someone born to the lower classes who ended up [through innumerable manipulations] as first lady of Argentina....living and dressing the part. The middle and upper classes knew who and what she was but the lower classes idolized her. While she and her husband raped the country, the Argentine people would throw flowers at her feet. To this date, nearly 40 years later, they talk of her as if she were a saint. I think that bin Laden could turn into that type of demagogue. Already there is a kind of mystique around him and many things are attributed to him that I bet have not been carried out by him. I guess time will tell. BTW I guess I have never said this before but my second set of godparents were from Egypt. However, they were Christian. They died when I was young so I never had the opportunity to visit them...I think they lived in Alexandria. ted