What a great semi-conciliatory tape we’ve seen transcripts of today. I’ll have to ask my Arabic-speaking coworkers what he really said when they get to hear it themselves – nobody trusts the translations in the media, especially when they vary from outlet to outlet.
Regardless, if anyone thinks it’s a good idea to negotiate with this fruitbat, please leave. Not the country, the planet – if you think Osama is a reasonable person who can be trusted, you are a danger to yourself and others.
It may be a surprise that I don’t personally agree with a lot of scary things that our current administration is doing, and that our timing and rationale for going into Iraq was flawed at best. But, there is no way I’d trust Osama more than I trust President Bush. Does Bin Laden actually expect people to just forgive and forget? Oh, that unprovoked attack against thousands of civilians? Bygones!