In one of the Hitchhikers books (Goodbye and Thanks for All the Fish, IIRC), the hapless protagonist Arthur Dent meets a character called Wonko the Sane. Wonko has built his house inside-out. Gradually Dent realizes what this means: the whole world is locked up in it, and only Wonko is free.

The perspective given by the NYT is very much the same. It looks from Manhattan across the Earth. But gradually, you come to realize that its editors are locked up in the asylum with the rest of the lunatics. The view across America is the view of the freedom of the outside.

In my opinion, OBL has been dead since approximately November of 2001. That was the last time anyone saw that twisted, insufferable egomaniac speaking with a reference to current events on videotape.

That camel chasing bastard would have posed with a recent copy of USA Today, the Kurdistan Times (if there is such a thing) or given an exclusive to Al-Jazeera a dozen times by now, just to throw his resistance in our collective face, if he could.

If I'm wrong, we can use the excuse of "no body found" to continue to prosecute the War on Terror to our nation's satisfaction - until any terrorists left in the world get a cruise missile in their laps for just thinking of doing evil to us or our allies.

I second Roy's comment. In fact, I had it all typed out myself until I glanced up and saw what he'd written.

I think one of two things is true. Either Osama bin Laden died in the Tora Bora mountains or circumstances have evolved to render him completely ineffective.

Osama bin Laden hasn't been seen or heard from since late 2001. Terrorist command and control has collapsed and their major source of funding has vanished.

But it's in al-Qaida's best interest to keep the myth of bin Laden alive, so they manufacture forged audio tapes and refer to bin Laden in their communications as if he were still around. But my bet is that he's pushing up daisies in the mountains of southern Afghanistan.

Provincial because...because...

THat's FUNNY to me!

The NYT is so last century...