I disagree.
Yes, OBL is looking to unite the Middle East in jihad against the Great Satan. This is his 'Plan B' after 'Plan A', destroy the Great Satan's will and crush it economically, didn't work out so good.
Now he's off to get islamofacist regimes in place in as many ME 'countries' as he can in hopes that they can all band together like some sort of sabre-weilding uber-terrorist Transformer robot and attack the Great Satan together.
Sigh.
The fact is, massive conflict between the islamofacists, their supportive states and followers was going to happen one way or another. The only way out is through. It matters not that going on the offense in the War on Terror is what OBL hopes for, as he expects our aggressive action to push the weak-minded dregs of Islamic society to his side, because there is no alternative.
It is only common sense for him to adopt a strategy that would hope to play off the weaknesses in the American response, what else would he hope to do?
The standing-up of free-ish societies is the antidote to his plan. Freedom, prosperity, wealth-creation, human rights. These are the weapons that will pull the rug out from under OBL's master plan to unite the Middle East under his 12th century barbaric banner.
The nay-saying and the 'get us out of Iraq' and the 'wrong war, wrong place, wrong time' crap is what will jeopardize our ultimate victory and islamofacism's ultimate defeat. There is no option but to move forward.
It is no big secret that OBL wants the US to antagonize the islamists in the ME. What he did not expect, and why I believe his address trying to divide the US electorate and put Kerry in the White House is not a ploy to keep W, is the measured ferocity and follow-through of the US response.
If we had just nuked a few Muslim holy sites, he would have had what he wanted. But we did not. We are moving forward with a plan that results, ultimately, in his becoming irrelevant. If the oppresed are not oppressed, if the gov'ts are reposnsive to the people, if the citizens of the ME start to see their own lives improve, OBL and his ilk will have no more 'swamp' to draw their jihadists from - who are overwhelmingly from the slums. Look at Iraq: the trouble spots are the most impoverished, worthless hellholes in that country. The sectors that are moving forward are not in 'rebellion'.
So, I believe OBL is on to a 'Plan C' at this point. A and B are busts, C is to reduce the American aggressiveness to a level he and his ilk can more readily handle. Get us out of Iraq so he can put a fundamentalist islamic regime in place, which would be an enormous victory and launch the next phase for him. This election is his big chance to do that.
He needs Kerry now. 4 more years of W just might be the end of his involvement in the jihad and 30 more years of W's aggressive anti-islamist policies could be the end (or at least the beginning of the end) of islamofacism in the ME.
- Gabe