Sorry to be so flip with y'all. I'm incredibly nervous living in this environment where I don't know whose news to trust how far. I read in the UK Times that ObL is thought to have bought spent nuclear fuel from a former Soviet republic in exchange for $700 million in heroin in a deal facilitated by Chechens. Then I see that the source is an Israeli author of a book on bin Laden whom I heard interviewed on the radio and felt he was very credible at the time but then I learned a little more and decided maybe some of the speculation he spreads as 'information' is really propaganda rumor whose point is to bring the US more directly into fimer support for Israel's assasinations hardline policies. The point is, I feel helpless whether it is true or not. I know I am being fed a diet of truth and calculated hybrid lies and it makes me nuts and worried.

From studying history there is one thing I am reasonably sure of - no country has ever prevailed in a counter-insurgency, anti-terrorist, whatever you want to call this warfare by relying primarily on military means. You can win every battle and still lose the war if enough of the 'enemy' hearts are set on continuing the struggle. To defuse this conflict we will have to convert the terms on which we wage it into something that wins over the majority of public opinion in the Islamic world. Our statements that 'we are not at war with Islam' are not enough. We have only satisfied ourselves that our war is just. We will have to satisfy more people in Arab and Muslim lands to prevail. War is now more about public relations and diplomacy than it is about military operations. This is especially true of this kind of shadow conflict with propaganda stakes. Their target is not the US directly. Their targets are the regimes in Egypt and Saudi that are the bulwark client states of US policy in the region.

We will not win this war with bombs or even excellent special forces even if we do get lucky and nab ObL. We will win this war with better diplomatic victories in Arab eyes. There is no nation to be built in Afghanistan and that is a Red Herring principally because the same 'terrorists' also exist in Pakistan and can move elsewhere if need be. You can't kill a spirit of Islamic nationalism. That is what is motivating these fighters. Pan-Islamic nationalism is a threat we have to deal with by forcing a deal on the Israelis or at least the reasonable concession of getting the Israelis to pull their provocative settlements out of Hebron.

The Hebron Gush Emunim movement are nothing more or less than an Israeli al Qaida analog. They are religious terrorists who believe they are doing God's will by killing Arabs and driving them from their Holy Land. This is extremely dangerous and serious. They are also supported by far right Christians who believe this must happen to clear the way for the Armageddon and the Rapture event of the Final Judgement. These are the parallel cultures to the Wahabbi fundamental militancy of al Qaida.

All crazy religious warriors must be reined in as soon as possible for the good of humanity. That includes most particularly the Jewish loonies (half of whom are from the US) who position themselves in settlements in the West Bank and shoot at and stone and harass Palestinians on a daily basis because their army won't stop them from doing it. I'm not making this stuff up either.

Let your friends and elected representatives and whomever will listen know that it is time to force Israel to remove the radical settlers from harm's way. The time was really yesterday but we can only go forward from today.

For the Love of Whatever You Deem Holy! Please! Help Get the Gush Emunim Terrorists Out of the Occupied Territories Now Before Millions Die!