Which is More Dangerous Osama the Man, or His Vision

A question for those who think the recent message from Osama Bin Laden means we're failing in the war on terror because he's still alive: Do you really think that capturing or killing Osama would've ended terrorism? Would Zarqawi have said, "Ooops... better go get a real job now"? And, if you believe Stephen Hayes from the Weekly Standard, it seems Saddam's regime was training a lot of terrorists in Iraq... Would capturing Osama have made all of those guys think it was better to forego the 72 virgins and become entrepreneurs instead? Would capturing Osama have caused Iran to elect (hehehe) a reformer rather than a dangerous nutjob and cause the mullahs there to embrace democracy and social and economic reform?

The "lesson of 9/11" for most Republicans was that we have to take terrorism and Islamofacism seriously and treat the issue like a war, not like a legal action. The perception is that the Democrats would be content to prosecute individual terrorists (after they strike?) and go back to the Clinton method of dealing with them. The comments about Osama verify that perception to those of us who think this issue is far bigger than one man.

Perhaps the difference is that we see the danger in the vision of the world espoused by Osama and other Islamofacists, and see their actions as proof that they are serious about creating an Islamic world in which Western liberal democracy has no place. The vision is beyond one man. It appears to us that the Democrats don't see the danger in that vision, despite the fact that the very freedoms liberals seem to hold dear would be the first things an Islamic Caliphate would crush. Note the self-expression allowed in Islamic states--there is none. Americans argue about gay marriage, while the Islamists hang homosexuals. We wonder if maybe MTV videos are too sexually suggestive for the eyes and ears of kids, while they cover women from head to toe and relegate them to servent status. We have a lively debate about abortion, while they would execute an unwed pregnant woman in an "honor killing". We have a dispute about whether or not the president should have invaded Iraq, while they would jail, torture, and/or execute anyone who spoke against the actions of their government. Etc.

To me, the way the Taliban ran Afghanistan appeared to be the preview of what Osama and his ilk would like to see worldwide. It seems to me, and I think to most Republicans, that that vision and the methodology for attaining it has to be stopped before it goes too far. 9/11 wasn't merely a "get Osama" lesson. It was a "stop the vision and the methodology" lesson.