<HTML>Hi Duncan,
The request for the evidence linking Bin Laden to the attacks of September 11th to be presented is one that is growing. Rightly so.
While there is almost universal revulsion at what has happened it would be folly for the western powers to imagine that this will translate into unequivical support for an indiscriminate military response. There is unanimity on the issue of bringing those responsible to justice, but if that global unanimity is to be maintained then justice has to be seen to be done, which means following due process and not resorting to extra-judicial execution.
Clearly Bin Laden is being promoted as a point of focus, a clearly identifiable bogeyman and hate figure. For all that such a status may be deserved it would be a mistake to assume that the problem begins and ends with this one man. Armchair generals are already pouring over maps of Afghanistan (some with a disturbingly irrational enthusiasm) but the problem which the image of Bin Laden is coming to represent, terrorism, goes way beyond that one little, backwards and impoverished country. Bin Laden himself is not an Afghan, nor it seems were any of those directly invovled in the attacks.
This is, of course, well known the the powers that be and for all that there is a determination to throw the lynching of Bin Laden to a public appetite for frontier justice (and to hell with the consequences for world opinion and the rule of law), this cannot be the whole story about what is happening behind the scenes. The US military machine is on a war footing and a Royal Navy task force is steaming (by chance) toward the Gulf, yet we are asked to believe that this is all for the sake of one man.
Regards,
Derek</HTML>
