Osama Bin Laden

I am trying to avoid getting political in my blog, since there are many people, equally as unqualified as me, who think that their opinion is more worth listening to. I ought to give them space to rant. I don't know anything either. Opinions are like noses - we all have them.

However, who can ignore Osama Bin Laden's sixth anniversary present to America? A video in which he suggests the only solution to the war in Iraq is that America embrace Islam.

An entire nation convert. And not just to 'Islam.' To an approved TYPE of Islam. After all, the only thing the Shi'a hate more than Americans are the Sunni.

Osama Bin Laden (if it really is him and not some stooge in a fake beard and a wig) is a dick.

He's been given so much ammunition. A quagmire in Iraq. A nation split between support for it's cowboy president and unmitigated hatred. If ever there was a time for Osama Bin Laden, the most hated man in America (closely followed by George Bush, if you follow certain news channels) to make a statement that the American people would listen to, this was it.

And what happens?

The bastard makes a clearly impossible demand that firmly reestablishes al-Qaida's commitment to chaos. He has no aims apart from continuing the Jihad against America. As far as Osama Bin Laden is concerned, there can be no peace while a sovereign American nation continues to exist.

His demands are deliberately unobtainable. He doesn't want to win. He only wants to fight and kill and lead thousands of martyred sheep to their doom.

It's a pretty depressing thought, but also a sobering one. America can't find a diplomatic solution to this crisis no matter what it does, short of ceasing to exist.

Many Americans consider themselves divided. In actual fact, they're more united than ever. Whether liberal or Conservative - red or blue - they're all equally despised in the eyes of al-Qiada.

Nothing any of us can do will ever 'win over' the enemy. Whether we stay in Iraq or flee, the war against democracy and freedom will continue.

The jihad is here. It's now. And it's not going away in a hurry no matter who you vote for, which radio station you listen to or what political pundit you support.

Only in America...

My brother in law has this stern warning to terrorists pinned on his warehouse wall.

He and my other brother in law rented the guns out in the Nevada desert and by the looks of that grouping, they're pretty handy with them!

As a Brit, an interest in handguns is entirely alien to me... However it's interesting to note that the gun crime figures in New Jersey have risen sharply since the NJ State legislature brought in some of the toughest gun control laws in the country.

It's a similar story in England, where the outright ban on private handgun ownership preempted a threefold increase in gun related injuries.

When Tina and I finally get ourselves established, I don't think we'll get ourselves a gun. They frighten me too much. But I am willing to accept that banning handguns is not the answer to stopping America's terrifying gun crime statistics.