In the tape, bin Laden spoke in a soft voice, as he has in previous recordings, but his tone was flatter than in the past and had an echo, as if recorded indoors. He presented his message with a combination of threats, vows his followers can fight forever and a tone of reconciliation, insisting he wants to offer a way to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He even recommended a book for Americans to read _ "The Rogue State," apparently a book of the same title by American author William Blum. He said it offers the path to peace _ that America must apologize to victims of the wars and promise never to "interfere" in other nations _ though it was not clear if these were conditions for the truce. (Associated Press, January 20, 2006) ==== WILLIAM BLUM: ANTI-IMPERIALIST RESOURCES "Killing Hope US Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII", Common Courage Press, 1995, 457 pages "Rogue State A Guide to the World's Only Superpower", Common Courage Press, 2000, 308 pages (These books may be ordered from the author's website http//members.aol.com/bblum6/American_holocaust.htm) After the collapse of the Soviet Union it became much easier for imperialism to defeat or frustrate its enemies everywhere in the world. Countries like Iraq no longer could rely on diplomatic, military and economic support from the Soviet bloc and were also forced to fight without the moral and political support from a disoriented Western left, whose solidarity--when offered--was often of a half-hearted nature. Once imperialism no longer had a use for cold warriors like Reagan or Thatcher, a space was created for new left-leaning politicians in Great Britain, Germany and the United States. Shorn of Cold War rhetoric and offering lip-service to human rights and economic justice, the Democrats in the USA, the Labor Party in Great Britain and the German Greens and Social Democrats appeared to elements of the left as "one of us." Leftish publications such as the Nation Magazine that had been on the front lines opposing the contra war in Nicaragua and National Endowment for Democracy interference with that country's election in 1990 now stood by passively or even cheered for the same kind of imperialist bullying of Yugoslavia. full: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/fascism_and_war/william_blum.htm -- www.marxmail.org
