bin Laden’s message

The claim that Osama bin Laden will issue a new broadcast message on the sixth anniversary of September 11 on Tuesday illustrates the fundamental difference between the two sides in the war on terror. Even if it does not materialise, the prospect of the tape has grabbed global attention: we shall be holding our breath until the 11th to see if he will say anything and, if he does, whether it ratchets up the al Qaeda message. Second, this brilliant and brilliantly simple piece of stage management counters any amount of Western reassurance that al Qaeda does not really exist, but is actually a disaggregated group of quite different local movements. It looks like it exists to me, even if its “existence” constitutes nothing more than the commanding centrality of an evil Pimpernel figure, uniting jihadis around the world in his ability to evade capture by the mightiest Armies in the world for six years. In truth, it is the West that is “disaggregated”, mired in recrimination, desperate to get out of Iraq, squabbling over Afghanistan, hobbled (in Britain’s case) by decades of Leftwing municipal ideology in its confrontation with domestic Islamism, unable even to agree on a name for the struggle. Watch the petty political feuding and introspection that will follow General Petraeus’ report this month on the progress of the “surge” in Iraq and ask yourself who’s really winning the global battle.