If this is the wrong forum feel free to move it. It has some politcal figures, it mentions a movie, it’s kind of my opinion, and it is mundane and pointless.)
They got another video from bin Laden and it got me thinking.
I hope you’ve seen The Princess Bride. If not, I guess I can just sum up the part that’s important here.
Westley, the hero in the story, is kidnapped by The Dread Pirate Roberts (TDPR). Years later, the heroine is also kidnapped by TDPR only to find that it is in fact Westley! He tells her the role of TDPR was handed down to him by his captor, who had also been handed the role of TDPR from another person. The original is retired. He tells her that’s it all in the name, “No one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley.” The Dread Pirate Roberts is the one they fear.
I propose that this is the deal with the Dread Terrorist bin Laden (DTbL). I propose the real DTbL has been dead (or retired) for years. He had enough people and money to get someone who can mimic his voice or else some fancy equipment to do it. Every once in a while someone dresses up and sends a video. No one would listen to, or be afraid of, the Dread Terrorist Olamma bin Kahlid. (I apologies if that’s the name of anyone here). They keep the name alive, and that’s all they need.
This brings me to my recommendation to Homeland Security; do the same thing. Make our own video with someone playing the role of the DTbL, but have him commanding his guys to cool down a bit and take a breather. “You guys have been working so hard recently, just take a few week off and we’ll get back to this whole killing people thing later.” With enough of these videos, with each telling them to back off a bit more, we could have the whole problem solved in under a year.
If someone accuses them of faking the video, we accuse them right back. Have our DTbL declare that the other videos are frauds. With two different people in two sets of videos claiming to be the real DTbL, there will be confusion among the ranks. Why not fake him being captured in a video, or even killed? Flood the media with enough fake videos and people won’t know which one are real, or even if any are.
I’m done rambling now. You can go back to your regular programming.