Neither will die for his cause, but each is willing...more than willing to conscript sacrificial lamb martyrs into the fray to die for their causes. They ask others to do what they will not. Bin Laden did once when he was younger; Bush never did.
Bin Laden is Bush's reason for living. His reason for keeping us in Iraq so he can pursue his dream and the desire of his friends to dominate and monopolize the world's supply of oil.
Don't be fooled by Bush telling a television reporter a long while back that he hardly thinks about bin Laden. How could he not think about his martyred alter ego. He thought about him all the time, knowing that bin Laden would surface again.
The war president's martyr is there for him to trot out at his pleasure, because if Bin Laden didn't show up on cue before a major election or right now, just in time for the sixth anniversary of 9/11, you can be sure that Bush would have managed to reminded us of him.
This time bin Laden appeared right on cue to help Bush keep his war going in the face of ever-growing public discontent and wanting to bring the G.I.s home from Iraq, and a Congress that is trying to figure how to de-fund Bush's war.
At the same time the Bush/Patreas report is due any minute, amid a war of conflicting reports on the progress or lack there of in Iraq. It doesn't matter how conflicted the reports are, Bush will use bin Laden and the threat of terrorism to do what he wants to do...no matter what.
Is it any surprise that bin Laden pops up now? With Saddam dead, if bin Laden were dead, too, Bush wouldn't have a martyr to hoist on an altar of wickedness for an all too willing American public to kneel before and cringe in abject fear.
In Bush's perverse, sick mind and convoluted, tortured way of thinking he needs bin Laden to be his living martyr; his living symbol of all that Bush considers evil to use as bait for his continued war.
There is no such thing as a war on terror. You cannot have a war on an emotion. There is a fight against terrorists and their acts of terrorism, and it should be fought the way any criminal activity is fought, with sound, reliable information and dogged police work.
Dead, bin Laden is no good to Bush whatsoever. Dead, Bush can't say al-Qaida in Iraq. Dead, Bush can't say war on "terror." Dead, Bush can't say we have to fight al-Qaida in Iraq so we don't have to fight al-Qaida here. Dead, Bush can't say, if we leave Iraq, al-Qaida will follow us here. Dead, Bush doesn't have his martyr to wave as a symbol of fear.
The devil is in the details, which may never be known. The devil's devil is the devil of us all. The world of martyrdom has taken on an entirely new meaning, bedeviling us who are trying to wrap our heads around it.
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