>I am not a big fan of exterminating bin Laden and others. I kind of
>like what happened to Sirhan Sirhan---remember him? There is
>something quite nasty about being in prison, as history erases almost
>all public memory of your actions while you live on to watch your own
>effacement. And, there are also all the wonderful humiliations of a
>vast spectacle of a trial----something like the OJ affair, drawn out,
>prolonged by endless legal maneuvers, change of venue, bad juries, bad
>judges, ridiculous appeals, FBI foul ups, exposes of CIA involvement,
>US attorney teams as media stars, demonstrations, riots between
>fanatics outside the trial, the whole circus atmosphere. I can't
>imagine anything closer to hell that going through something like
>that, knowing that at the end of the day, prison and anonymity is
>waiting.
I take your point, but would note that Sirhan Sirhan never was an Osama bin Laden. America has done what it's best at, produced a brandname. Nike managed it, too, remember. And they, too, have recently had cause to reflect on the mixed-blessing that is automatic association between one's product and its paradigm. In giving 'evil' a face, America neatly organised its subjects and lapdogs, line astern.
But it gave something to others, too. Note the last sentence of Fisk's latest: "Just don't mention the name of Osama bin Laden. Because when I did, the faces of the villagers lit up as if they had heard the name of the Messiah."
Sure, dead, he's a martyr. But alive, he's a cause.
Maybe it's because I've so long been immersed in a communications department, but 'ObL' might just be a job for PR Man and his toolkit of dirt-diviners, contrived legends and sticky slanders ...
Cheers, Rob.