Bad News for Osama bin Laden

(Bear with me, I'll get to Osama bin Laden.)

In basketball, and in life, there are tons of times when you are outmatched.

In basketball, one great way to deal with bigger, stronger, faster players is to use your head. Rather than obsessing about the fact that you can't outjump or outrun your opponent, you can often find success by thinking about what it is that your opponent does not want you to do. Players who are much bigger than you, for instance, do not want a lot of contact, because the referees' calls tend to favor poor little guys who get knocked to the ground, instead of the big brutes who knock them down. Similarly, very fast players tend to get it in their head that they will win by beating you to wherever you want to go. They get twitchy with anticipation. A good fake can send them sprawling.

We need to think like that in fighting Al Qaeda. Those people who are involved in hunting down Al Qaeda have for a long time played into Al Qaeda's hands, by trying to match Al Qaeda strength for strength. In short, as Al Qaeda has demonized the west, our leaders have demonized Islam. But, of course, emphasizing that division only makes Al Qaeda's meatheaded, violent approach seem more sensible.

But in Spain, it seems, someone has figured out the smart approach. According to this article, leading Spanish muslims have condemned Osama bin Laden. That's exactly the kind of thing he does not want. That kind of action erodes his influence more than any missile ever will. Building a bridge to moderate Muslims is a powerful idea all of our leaders should embrace, both because it's what our opponents do not want us to do, and because it's the right thing to do.

In fact, we don't even need to catch Osama bin Laden. I don't think it'll happen this way, but imagine if we could get 99.99% of Muslims to condemn his boneheaded, excessively violent approach. Without broad support, he's just another Montana Militia-type wingnut huddled somewhere in the woods, promising his people over cold spam that one day really really soon it'll all be better.