Maybe, though the official line is that the Europeans aren't going to give into this. Hopefully, most of the people realize that a guarantee from bin Laden is like a guarantee from Hitler. It's no guarantee at all. Even Spain has said no, which doesn't surprise me. They showed throat last month after 3/11, but it appears that al-Qaeda still intended to hit them some more. I don't think it's likely, but I guess we will see if appeasement still exists in Europe. It's not easy to stand against evil, but it's worth it in the long run.

The idea that OBL, Emperor Of Evil could ever offer a ‘truce’ is completely laughable. As Jack Straw says, ‘Treat it with the contempt it deserves’. The bearded Master of Malice knows that (most) government leaders will see through his cyanide tipped olive stake and spurn the ‘offer’. Then the leftists and those adherents of moral equivalence who refuse to see evil in freedom’s worst living enemy will squeal, “Oh look, we are such warmongers, we won’t cut the poor man some slack when he’s opened his heart towards universal happiness and joyful campfire songs…” Or maybe he thinks that one or two Euro leaders will abandon the Coalition Against Evil in the name of self preservation. Cut and run from Iraq or Afghanistan and you’d be spared!! Leave those two countries, then the Middle East, Africa and Asia to the bloody talons of radical Islamists and you’d be safe! You can count on them to keep their word! Of course I’m being bitterly sarcastic. The deluded madness that is the AQ leaderships’ mouldering brains of messianic fantasy WILL drag up an excuse, no matter how fantastic, to commit some new outrage. Didn’t AQ’s Morrocan front take the expulsion of the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula as a personal insult to be avenged by the rucksack bomb? They would willingly destroy anti-Iraq-war France for assisting Algeria’s battle against the GIA/GSPC for a contemporary excuse, or say Charlemage offended them for NOT submitting to Islamic invasion in AD 800 whatever for a ‘historical’ abuse. Don’t ever negotiate with Al Qaeda. They’re not the same as Libya or the IRA. They can’t be reasoned with. Only killed on the battlefield, rooted out in the urban centers and thorougly delegitimised in the media front. The hardcore radical Islamist’s definition of peace is for all non-Muslim cultures and beliefs to STOP EXISTING, for all jihad survivors to be turned to subservient slaves and non compliant Muslims to be destroyed alongside recalcitrant unbelievers. Is that vision of ‘peace’ acceptable to any of us? NO WAY!

Usama's "offer" reminds me of a quote from one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies, Commando. One of the bad guys cracks a joke about Arnold's character's daughter who's being held hostage, and Arnold's character Matrix replies, "You're a funny guy, Sully, I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last." The Europeans' turn at the chopping block will come if Usama has his way, they're just having to stand in line behind the Israelis and Americans. :P

Osama may have just handed over the excuse Spain's new government needs NOT to pull their troops out.

I think the real irony is Osama Bin Ladin is offering a 'cease fire agreement' with Europe, and at the same time America is supposed to be losing this war. Guess who must be feeling the heat? Maybe that last Pakistan operation was a little too close to home? I think this was a major political miscalculation on Al Queda's part. Up until this statement, they were playing the game pretty well.

So, it's really HAMMER time. I'm going to start a fund, I want to take up a collection for our troops to get some tactical nukes for them. Let's finish this! There I go again, with that "American Impatience". or is it? I think we need to strike hard while the iron is hot, in a manner of speaking. if these boogers are feeling our wrath, let's redouble our efforts and show them that they have felt NOTHING yet, and we are capable of FAR more effective attacks than they ever dreamed of. E.

I'm confused. I wonder how the left will spin this development, now that Osama Bin Laden sounds like a Kerry supporter / Democratic Underground poster. How do you offer a truce to Europe without admitting you're at war with them? And if Al Qaeda is at war with Europe, only for supporting the US in Iraq, why did they attack a French oil tanker last year? And if Al Qaeda is not / was not in league with the former government of Iraq, why are they fighting its replacement? One of the first targets of Al Qaeda in Iraq was the UN consulate, which quickly packed up and left Iraq. How will European nations holding out for a UN mandate to oversee reconstruction efforts before sending troops to / keeping troops in Iraq spare them from Al Qaeda attacks if they send / keep troops? Europe, you've been attacked, and threatened with more attacks. See page one of Bush's doctrine of pre-emption, and get your asses to Iraq already.

How genorous of them. Note how I bubble with joy at the magnanamity of our foes.