A reply to Osama

To begin: Peace be upon he who follow the Guidance.

• Peace be upon she who likes peace and who follows the laws of the Standard Model.
  
  

People of United States, this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan and deals with the war and its causes and results.

• It seems that your talk was not quite addressed to people like me. It is hard to say whether someone should seriously talk to you - and the details of your speech are probably much less important than you think - but on the other hand, such a debate may have some educational value. Let me start with a trivial answer to your question: the best way to prevent another Manhattan - and to stop blackmailing like this one - is to defeat the terrorists like you, using both military as well as the help for those who need it and friendship with those who deserve it.
  
  
• A priori, another approach would be to become your friends and to fulfil your wishes, but this strategy can't work. Your demands would have no limits. Your perverse dreams are infinite, much like your, non-renormalizable edition of Allah. There is little doubt that you would like to eliminate whole countries from the map of the world - Israel, for example - and it is just too a high price to pay. It seems a more realistic approach to be brave and patient, and to try to find the murderers who have no respect to human life. I think that our civilization has the capacity to achieve this goal.
  
  

Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar in human life and that free men do not forfeit their security contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom.

• It is really ironic if you talk about security as a pillar in human life. Although you may otherwise be an irrelevant average person, your deadly ideas and your very existence has already cost thousands of human lives - not speaking about tens of billions of dollars of the US taxpayers (and some other taxpayers).
  
  
• Concerning freedom and security: it is important to realize that the very idea that a person XY would have to follow your wishes would mean that XY is not free. Freedom always means that security is not perfect. We always prefer to be free as well as secure, but sometimes, we must find a compromise.
  
  

If so, then let him explain why did not strike - for example - Sweden.

• He has already explained it in his speech on 9/11. America has been targeted for attack because the Americans are the brightest beacon for freedom. Well, this answer also includes the fact that Sweden has not been targeted because Sweden, although it is a nice and decent country without any serious problems, is not the brightest beacon for freedom. In fact, it has been a social state for quite some time, but that's a different issue. :-)
  
  
• Your speech makes it clear that you hate freedom - human rights, religious freedoms, as well as economic freedom - and you are upset if you see freedom in the USA, and you are equally upset if you see it in the Arab world.
  
  
• Well, of course, this is not the full answer. You have not chosen Sweden yet because of two more reasons: the religious situation in Sweden probably looks more satisfactory to you - Mosques are being built as the percentage of Muslims is well above 2 percent (because of immigration). Second, Sweden simply did not fit into your sick plans so far because Sweden is not too active in defending freedom throughout the world. Do you have a different explanation why you've already murdered hundreds of people in Spain and no one in Sweden?
  
  

And we know that freedom haters do not possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 may Allah have mercy on them.

• We may be using a different terminology. Let me guess that by freedom haters, you really mean freedom lovers. Be sure that freedom lovers possess at least as defiant spirits as your terrorist friends - those who are already waiting for you in the Hell. (For my fellow atheists: the word "Hell" is just a metaphor.) That's why thousands of troops from the USA and its allies risk their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that's why I don't hesitate to answer your speech. But the defiant spirits are not what really distinguishes us from you - the difference is mainly in the principles of humanity, something that you have no idea about.
  
  
• Fortunately, technology is another difference between you and the modern free world. You are only able to destroy - you know how to use our airplanes to kill thousands. We are better in inventing, developing , and constructing the airplanes, and in saving the lives.
• It is people like you and your terrorist friends who prevent your part of the world - and most of the Arab nations - from joining the modern, happy, and prosperous world. You know, religion and traditions don't contradict freedom, democracy, and capitalism, as long as most people are also able to use their hearts and brains. Concerning the 19 "heroes": they're gone, and although they were murderers, I always felt a bit sorry even about them. They had to realize that their lives had no value anymore. Most likely, they also believed that they could be rewarded by Allah for their acts. Well, I of course don't believe that they will be rewarded, but even if I multiply my faith in God by one million, the Hell is the only new thing that expects them.
  
  

No, we fight because we are free men who do not sleep under oppression.

• The reason why you "fight" is that your brains suffer from a very perverse, collective disease - a disease that you're unable to distinguish from Allah. Because this disease is a threat for the whole humankind, we just can't let you propagate on the surface of this planet.
  
  

We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation so shall we lay waste to yours.

• You would have to be more specific which waste are the Americans laying in your Nation. On the other hand, you don't have to explain the waste that you lay to America.
  
  

But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real cause and thus the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.

• You know, that's the defiant spirit and the power of freedom. Yes, America is amazing, and despite the disaster that you caused, America has been able to keep on moving. It's because its system is based on the right values and ideas. I realize that you may still feel very important - you may start to compare yourselves to some of the most amazing killers in the history of humankind - but you should try to restrict your self-confidence a little bit. Eventually you will be found in a spider hole and treated in a similar way like thousands of other killers.
• If you really believe that someone in America - or the rest of the world - will seriously listen to your weird interpretations of 9/11 and what it means and how it should be dealt with, then you're really ill. You're nothing more than a megalomanic killer, and only the most evil and the most stupid people can provide you with support. My guess is that you are surrounded by dumb people who just say "Yes, Mr. Laden", "Yes, Mr. Laden" (including the religious titles), and this makes you increasingly disconnected from reality.
  
  

So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and I shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken for you to consider.

• If I did not make an advertisement to your speech, no one would study the details of your rants.
  
  

I say to you Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike towers.

• It had not occured to you until you got the idea, right? The infinitesimal glimpses of conscience that you're showing are simply not enough. What you should do is to apologize and offer the rest of your life to peace and to America - the country that you've hurt so much (but not as much as you would like). I am not sure whether it would be enough for you to correct your image in the eyes of God - whichever God you have in mind - but it is your only chance right now.
  
  

But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the America/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.

• If your personal psychological problems became unbearable in a civilized country, you would be offered doctors who could help you - and save thousands of lives. This does not happen on the Afghani-Pakistani border or where you exactly live right now. That's sad. By the way, we have a lot of physics colleagues from Israel, and they want everlasting peace to exist in Israel (and Palestine, if this country is ever created).
  
  
• The Palestinians have the opportunity to study at the universities, but their results can't compare to the Jews'. What do you think is the reason? I think that the main reason is that they have bad leaders and authorities that teach them wrong things. In some sense, you are one of these "leaders". Because of these leaders and "leaders", the Palestinians - and perhaps some other nations which are able to trust people like you - remain underdeveloped, and relatively uncultural nations that are threatening the security of other nations.
• I hope that they will eventually realize that they must pick more modern ideals and leaders, ones that are compatible with the modern civilization, and they will be living much happier lives. We're living in the same civilization that started because of many great Arab contributions several millenia ago - the Arabic numerals are an example. However, something went wrong in the Arab world afterwards, and the task for the future generations of Arabs will be to fully return their nations to the civilized world - the world that has already learned that democracy and freedom is the best known system for a society to develop.
  
  

The events that affected my soul in a difficult way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American 6th fleet helped them in that.

• I am not a historian, and it's hard to give a balanced description of all these events. Nevertheless, it may be useful to say a couple of elementary words about the Lebanon War - more precisely about the Operation Peace for Galilee. You know that it was the same America that forced the Israeli prime minister Begin to withdraw their forces from Southern Lebanon in 1978. Osama, you're so blinded by your hatred that you're unable to see the very many examples in which Americans tried to protect peace - as well as the rights of Arabs. If the Arabs were able to respect the ceasefire etc., the war would have never started. Unfortunately, hundreds of terrorist attacks - similar to those that occur today - were taking place in Israel and on the Lebanese-Israeli border. The very specific act that initiated the war was an assasination attempt against the Israeli ambassador in the UK.
• Henry Kissinger (the former US secretary of state) said that "no sovereign state can tollerate indefinitely the buildup along its borders of a military force dedicated to its destruction and implementing its objectives by periodic shellings and raids." (Washington Post, June 16, 1982)
• I would definitely have agreed with this general statement, although it is a very controversial question whether starting the war was a good idea. At any rate, the war was some sort of "War Against Terror" in the early 1980s, and although it caused a lot of pain and it was very expensive for Israel, I feel that it meant some kind of progress because I would say that Lebanon is not the primary source of terrorism anymore, and there is more peace, at least in this part of Israel's borderland.
  
  
• However, you have a correct point - that the Jews simply do influence American policies more than the Arabs - not only because of the Israeli spy that was identified in CIA or whatever exactly happened. ;-) The Jews follow principles that are simply more compatible with the democratic system - the broadly defined system that also works in America and Israel. Be sure that the main difference between the Jews and the Arabs is not a particular difference between the Koran and the Bible. The main difference is in the way how these religious principles are interpreted are applied in the real life, and the terrorists' interpretation of the Koran is the least viable one.
  
  
• If you were able to realize that the Koran actually encourages the people to love one another and to educate themselves, be sure that the world would become much better. But you are apparently uncapable of such a phase transition. If people like you will keep on influencing Islam in the future, this religion will become a mantra of dangerous animals. If the wise people become influential, the religion of Islam may become one of the pillars of the future world.
• Do you know that the muslims used to respect the Christians as the "people of the book"? Religious tollerance and the respect for knowledge is something that has become much less important in the Arab world - and the people like you should be blamed for this unfortunate fact.
  
  

And the whole world saw and heard but did not respond.

• The whole world also saw the hundreds of terrorist acts that justified the steps of Israel. The whole world also knows that the Arab terrorists were not the first people who made the Jews suffer. The whole world also knows that any kind of intervention constitutes a risk.
  
  

In those difficult moments many hard to describe ideas bubbled in my soul but in the end they produced intense feelings of rejection of tyranny and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.

• This had to be a really strong feeling if you were able to kill 3000 people 20 years later because of these events from the history textbooks. The word "tyranny" in this context is weird. Poor Israel was a small, innocent, peaceful country that was being attacked by murderers like you. If the question is whether it had the right to protect itself, the answer is definitely "yes". If the question is whether it was a reasonable strategy to protect itself, the answer is "I don't know, but I also don't know of any better strategy that they could have used".
  
  

And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressors in kind and that we destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.

• I wonder whether you were really the first person who invented this "great" idea. By the way, the towers in New York were much more populated (and expensive) than the towers in Lebanon, and even if your Allah were drunk, He would definitely agree that it was not a fair revenge, especially because you picked America.
  
  

We have not found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half of which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.

• This sentence implies that you don't like those Arab regimes that resemble the American ones. In other words, you don't like the idea of democracy. It's because you know that the more democracy, freedom, and prosperity there will be in the Arab world, the less influential the sad people like you will be.
  
  

Our experience with them is lengthy and both types are replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth.

• Do you think you are the right person to talk about misappropriation of wealth, greed, arrogance, and pride? You who could have used half a million of dollars from your rich bank accounts to kill thousands and cause hundreds of billions of dollars of damages, instead of investing them to something useful? Something that could actually help the people? You, a person whose life has been one big disaster, but who still wants to teach us how should we behave, wants to criticize others for their pride and arrogance? Well, let me agree that the word "greed" does not characterize you too well, except for your desire to be powerful.
  
  

This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Senior to the region at a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries. All of a sudden he was affected by these monarchies and military regimes and became jealous of their remaining decades in their position to embezzle the public wealth of the Nation without supervision or accounting.

• That's ridiculous. All American leaders and most of the Western leaders would be happier if the regimes in the Arab countries - even the friendly ones - resembled the Western democracies more rigorously. But in the real world, it's not possible to have everything, and the West must choose a lesser evil.
  
  

So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act under the pretences of fighting terrorism.

• In the real world, one cannot be 100% secure and 100% free. After 9/11/2001, America (and other countries) had to realize that the unlimited freedom implied some risks to the national security. The equilibrium had to shift, and the Patriot Act is a reasonable, very small restriction of some freedoms whose effect seems to be a dramatic increase of the national security. Three years without a new major attack seems to be a good evidence that it works.
  
  

In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors and did not forget to import expertise in election fraud from the regions presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.

• If the election fraud in a Western country were even remotely comparable to what's happening in some of the Arab countries (for example Iraq in which Hussein received 100% of the votes), that would be pretty serious. On the other hand, if the problems with the elections in the Arab world (for example, the problems that may occur in January in Iraq) were comparable to the tension in Florida, that would mean a huge victory of democracy in the Arab world.
  
  

All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.

• It's apparently easy for you to kill thousands - the lives don't matter as long as you "provoke and bait the US administration", do they? You know, that's another difference between the cultures. The US president is not a second God. He or she is just one of the US citizens that has been elected to serve her or his country. No one in the civilized world will accept your explanation that 9/11 was legitimate because it is important to "provoke Bush".
  
  

And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration notice.

• Yes, your "commander-general" and you were moderately skillful technically in designing this horrible act. On the other hand, NASA synchronizes various machines with the accuracy of picoseconds, so be sure that your skills won't be enough for you to find a job in the USA. The only thing that is exceptional about you is how little you care about human lives - but this is a feature that we don't appreciate too much.
  
  

It never occurred to us that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at a time when they most needed him.

• On 9/11, I was defending my PhD thesis in New Jersey at 9:30 am. You were unable to stop the defense either. Actually, I was only devastated after I saw the first videosequences from Manhattan on TV which was around 11 am - well, I did not sleep for several days. That's your fault, too. By the way, I hope that now you realize that you were fortunately very far from the number of 50,000 casualties.
  
  

But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers we were given three times the period required to execute the operations. All praise is due to Allah.

• You know, Bush is a sensitive person, and he just could not scare the little girl. If a disaster like that happens, he at least tried to minimize the bad consequences of your act. A scared girl would be another bad consequence. Bush did not disappoint as the leader after 9/11. Incidentally, America has a lot of security rules at all possible levels, and the US president is not necessary to start the emergency operations in the World Trade Center.