Letters from Osama

Newsweek:

Osama Bin Laden appears to be reasserting his influence among the Afghan and Pakistani tribal leaders upon whom he's depending for survival. Since December, the Qaeda chief has personally penned at least five brief letters, written in Arabic on white stationery, to the region's militant commanders. For the Taliban's Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, the latest correspondence is the second he's received this year from the "Sheik," as bin Laden is known among jihadis. The first was a letter of condolence after the death of Dadullah's notoriously brutal elder brother, a senior Taliban figure who was killed by Coalition forces in May 2007. An Afghan Taliban official said Mansoor was thrilled to receive the notes. "For the first time the Sheik is … reaching out to individual fighters rather than just broadcasting an audio or videotaped message," says the official, who requested anonymity for security reasons. "It's like a reward for a job well done."

According to the Taliban source, bin Laden's letter-writing campaign was inspired by ramped-up military activities on both sides of the rugged border. "He sees the tide turning in his favor." Bin Laden's main point, said the Taliban official, who has seen one of the notes, is that he is "satisfied with the effort and progress of the resistance against Jews and Christians." The holy war against infidels, bin Laden added, is not his personal fight but that of all Muslims. "Jews and Christians," he wrote, "have a long history of opposing any Islamic government that is trying to establish a truly Islamic state based on Sharia law."

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Shari'a law should never be permitted to be imposed on anyone. It is a brutal and barbaric middle ages code that relies on mutilation and corporal punishment. The Taliban military activities on the Afghan side of the border have been a disaster for them. If we could get them to ambush more of our convoys, we could wipe them out quicker. In one such encounter the Taliban lost around 100 fighters to one casualty on our side. That is an unsustainable casualty rate for the enemy. the enemy activity on the Pakistan side has had most of its success against poorly trained frontier forces. Against the Pakistan army the Taliban has been routed.