Voice From The Cave!

Osama is back (on audiotape); and he's making a lot of things clear in his Spring 2006 release:

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said the West's shunning of the Hamas-led Palestinian government showed it was waging a "Crusader-Zionist war" on Muslims, according to an audiotape attributed to him and aired on Sunday.

People in the West share responsibility for their countries' "war against Islam," said the speaker, who sounded like bin Laden, on the tape broadcast on Al Jazeera television.
The Saudi-born militant said the Darfur crisis in western Sudan and Western efforts to isolate the Palestinian government since Hamas won January elections were part of this campaign

Well, his terminology is meant to inflame Islamists, but he is essentially correct - radical Islam is at war with the West, but it is a war they have started, long before (but not recognized clearly until) September 11th.

By claiming the "people" of the West share responsibility, he is offering an endorsement of the slaughter of civilians by terrorist factions. Again, there is a grain of truth here - Americans chose George Bush to be their leader in no small part because he has vowed to fight Islamic terror; the Palestinians selected Hamas because they have vowed to kill Jews. The obvious difference is that while Americans never target civilians, Islamists (like Hamas) deliberately attempt to kill the weakest and most defenseless part of a society. If that is the way the Islamists want to fight it, fine; but let me never hear another word from a Muslim country (or a Western peace faction) about the death of civilians in this battle. You gonna dish it out, better be ready to take it, ladies...

And for those fans of muliticulturalism, note that Osama is supporting the murderous animals of Hamas and the murderous animals of Sudan's Islamic janjaweed (who began a campaign of murder, rape and plunder that drove more than 2 million villagers into squalid camps in Darfur and in neighboring Chad.). Still think all cultures are equal? Still think we need to "listen" and understand" more?

Another unsurprising note: He's a big fan of the "cartoon jihad":

Bin Laden also called for boycotting the United States and European countries over the controversial cartoons lampooning Islam's Prophet Mohammad first published by a Danish newspaper.
"Bin Laden urged in his tape that solidarity for the Prophet ... should continue by widening the boycott to include the United States and European nations that supported Denmark," Al Jazeera said.
"He also demanded that those who offended the Prophet ... be hand over for trial to al Qaeda," it said.

Well, he's been reading the papers; and he probably knows that the continued threat of violence will keep the Western media in line. Not that some dark age clown in flowing robes spouting apocalyptical nonsense into a child's tape recorder from inside of a cave scares me, but it does throw a quiver into the Washington Post...note their use of language:

Osama bin Laden issued ominous new threats in an audiotape broadcast Sunday...
The voice on the tape sounded strong and resembled that on previous recordings attributed to bin Laden...
The United Nations has described the [Sudan]conflict as the world's gravest humanitarian crisis. The United States has described it as genocide...

Note how the dhimmis at the WaPost still stick to the UN's craven definition of the slaughter; while ascribing the word genocide only to the United States, although many other Western nations have used it as well. Even the Reuters story linked above makes the distinction between good and evil here...the bearded one knows well that the MSM is the first to tremble, quail, and surrender...so thanks for supporting al-Qaeda, Comedy Central!

This tape should open the eyes of those whom cling to the belief that there is no clash of civilizations. If September 11th and all the subsequent attacks were not a wake up call, the confirmation of this war by Osama bin Ladin, the leader of the Islamofascist movement, should end all doubts. If one denies we are at war now, one can only be see as actively aiding and abetting our enemies.

I'll finish with Deroy Murdock's commentary of the upcoming film United 93 , and why it is so important today:

Almost daily, al Qaeda in Iraq blasts Iraqis, Americans, and others through ceaseless acts of stunning viciousness.
United 93 arrives just in time. As we bicker over Donald Rumsfeld’s job security by day and obsess over American Idol by night, writer-director Paul Greengrass offers a harrowing reminder of what’s in play on Earth today.

"That final image haunts me — a physical struggle for the controls of a gasoline-fueled 21st-Century flying machine between a band of suicidal religious fanatics and a group of innocents drawn from amongst us all,” [director Paul] Greengrass said. “It’s really, in a way, the struggle for our world today".

Indeed. And if we do not wake up to it, we will certainly be killed by it.

UPDATE: The Washington Post story has been rewritten since this AM; still full of awe for the enemy - here's the only quote they managed to dredge up all day:
"They still have not been captured. They are still issuing threats. The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan. It's amazing."