MAINPAL, India, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Where
the United States performs superlatively is in the collection of information.
Whether it is the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency or
one of the lesser-known acronyms in the intelligence community's alphabet soup,
vast volumes of data are processed and sent up the food chain. Yet, for all
that, much of the intelligence inputs get analyzed from a context and
perspective that ultimately distorts their meaning.
Osama bin Laden, poster boy for the
Wahhabi war of revenge against the West's victory in the Crusades, conveyed a
message in his latest tape that is very different from that which a mere translation
of his Arabic indicates.
He offered a conditional ceasefire to
Western populations, provided they elect governments that refuse to militarily
intervene in the Middle East or give substantive backing to local regimes
there.
The jihadist planners of the war of
revenge believe the first priority is to establish their sway over their own
countries. The reconquest of Israel can wait while the conquest of the West can
wait still longer.