Although he’s been in the terrorist business for several decades, Osama bin Laden has been a household name only for the last decade. The events of 9/11 should ensure that he will be remembered as one of history’s great villains. Only nine months into the millennium (which started January 1, 2001, not 2000) he became the century’s first Bad Guy, scoring a respectable .62 on the Hitler Scale, the internationally recognized standard for rating bastards.
But, except for one unlucky day, he’s been largely a failure, receiving more attention than he deserves and far more credit than he deserves.
bin Laden heads up al Qaeda, the latest version of the Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight. He had one day (or what Andy Warhol would refer to as one’s “15 minutes of fame”) that was spectacular but the rest of his ‘mission’ has been pretty much a bust. On September 11, 2001 al Qaeda managed to kill just under 3000 people and injure 6000. But other than that one day, his successes (if measured by body counts) have been modest, paling in comparison to Chairman Mao, North Korea’s Kims, Pol Pot, Stalin and, of course, Hitler).
Some of the more famous body counts:
Stalin — 20-30 million
Hitler —15 million
Mao — 40 million
Pot —2 million (20% of Cambodia’s population)
Kims — millions (who knows?)
(The above figures are widely debated; the point is that even the minor players like the Kims and Pot make bin Laden look pretty lame).
bin Laden sort of took responsibility for the botched underwear bomber attack, a month after it happened. Apparently Abdulmutallab was trained at a bin Laden al Qaeda franchise operation in Yemen, albeit rather poorly. Like the inept shoe bomber, Richard Reid, Abdulmutallab scared the shit out of a lot of people but really didn’t do much damage. If Abdulmutallab is the best bin Laden can turn out these days, it’s time for him to retire before he jeopardizes his election into the Villains’ Hall of Fame.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Let’s retire bin Laden. Take him off the top of the FBI’s 10-most-wanted list and quit putting up his picture every time we need a stock photo of a terrorist mastermind.
The guy to worry about these days is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He’s working on building nuclear weapons; he working on long-range missiles; and, he’s fucking crazy. Now that’s a terrorist.
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 5:08 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Osama’s bin Irrelevant
Osama bin Laden
Although he’s been in the terrorist business for several decades, Osama bin Laden has been a household name only for the last decade. The events of 9/11 should ensure that he will be remembered as one of history’s great villains. Only nine months into the millennium (which started January 1, 2001, not 2000) he became the century’s first Bad Guy, scoring a respectable .62 on the Hitler Scale, the internationally recognized standard for rating bastards.
But, except for one unlucky day, he’s been largely a failure, receiving more attention than he deserves and far more credit than he deserves.
bin Laden heads up al Qaeda, the latest version of the Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight. He had one day (or what Andy Warhol would refer to as one’s “15 minutes of fame”) that was spectacular but the rest of his ‘mission’ has been pretty much a bust. On September 11, 2001 al Qaeda managed to kill just under 3000 people and injure 6000. But other than that one day, his successes (if measured by body counts) have been modest, paling in comparison to Chairman Mao, North Korea’s Kims, Pol Pot, Stalin and, of course, Hitler).
Some of the more famous body counts:
Stalin — 20-30 million
Hitler —15 million
Mao — 40 million
Pot —2 million (20% of Cambodia’s population)
Kims — millions (who knows?)
(The above figures are widely debated; the point is that even the minor players like the Kims and Pot make bin Laden look pretty lame).
bin Laden sort of took responsibility for the botched underwear bomber attack, a month after it happened. Apparently Abdulmutallab was trained at a bin Laden al Qaeda franchise operation in Yemen, albeit rather poorly. Like the inept shoe bomber, Richard Reid, Abdulmutallab scared the shit out of a lot of people but really didn’t do much damage. If Abdulmutallab is the best bin Laden can turn out these days, it’s time for him to retire before he jeopardizes his election into the Villains’ Hall of Fame.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Let’s retire bin Laden. Take him off the top of the FBI’s 10-most-wanted list and quit putting up his picture every time we need a stock photo of a terrorist mastermind.
The guy to worry about these days is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He’s working on building nuclear weapons; he working on long-range missiles; and, he’s fucking crazy. Now that’s a terrorist.
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 5:08 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.