OBL's scepter???

Who knows, but the guy has got to have a huge ego. I mean, the most powerful country in the world has been looking for him for 10 years and can't track him down as of yet. His latest terrorist attack will -- beyond the 5500 lives and thousands more families affected -- likely push the country into recession and cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars between military operations, bailout programs, lost jobs, etc.

He's probably impacted the world more than any single person out there. Until he's caught, he'll probably gloat and bask in his successes. If he truly believes he's fighting for religious reasons, then even killing him won't bother him because he would truly believe in a better after-world waiting for him. I think he needs to be locked up forever, if possible, rather than blowing him away (although this is probably the easier and more reasonable solution).

 

Please tell me that the question about the scepter is a joke. That has to be part of the television (a TV network image). Did you notice that it is in the exact same place on the screen in each image?

 

Yeah, its obviously a network or station logo. Like the NBC peacock, but fancier.

shanna, doesn't war normally (read: always) help the U.S. economy? Plunging us into recession seems far fetched, especially since we were headed in that direction anyway.

 

Hmm, and it is always the guy on the right of the screen holding it too.

I believe that is Al Jazeer's TV station logo, or whatever that network is that carried his "speech" yesterday.

 

That's what I get for not looking at all the pictures!!

<B>shanna, doesn't war normally (read: always) help the U.S. economy? Plunging us into recession seems far fetched, especially since we were headed in that direction anyway.</B>

Long-term, yeah, it normally helps. But that's mostly because of the war-time industrialization of the country. Tanks and weapons start getting produced more. People go to serve in the military, lowering unemployment and employing all these people. The government starts spending like crazy, pumping money into the economy, etc. This type of war may not have that effect because it's not really a man-power war.

As for the recession -- I'm just going with what many economists have said. Most seem to think that we were going to just have flat growth this quarter and next and then start growing again (how they conclude these things is beyond me). Now they believe the "panic" and fall of the worldwide markets will cause people to reduce their spending and create a recession this quarter. I don't really know if this will happen or not.