Airstrip One

Will Europe take the Truce?

Osama (you know, the one we haven't captured or killed) seems to have offered a truce to the Europeans if the troops get off the soil:

In a recording broadcast on Arab satellite networks Thursday, a man who identified himself as Osama bin Laden offered a “truce” to European countries that withdraw from Muslims countries. The CIA said a preliminary analysis of the recording indicates the voice is "likely" that of the fugitive al-Qaida leader.

Now this seems to finally shoot the fox of those who argue that the main Islamicists are just random nutters who would target us even if we didn't support the Saudi royals, Israel or Chalabi. Surely if the plan was an unco-ordinated attack on everything Western there would be plans on invading former Islamic ruled lands such as Greece and Southern Spain rather than offers of truces. Of course a set of unco-ordinated mad men would find it hard to plan big terrorist outrages, but that's another story.

So what will Europe (minus the UK but plus Japan) do? My bet is that they will try to find some way of taking the offer without appearing to do so. A close watch should now be on whether troop replacements turn up, etc. Small detachments very easily go missing.