Osama cannot die

Osama bin Laden dead? Not a ghost of a chance. Not with George Bush alive. If Osama dies – and that too of typhoid and not because he has been trapped and killed – then the whole Bush cottage industry will crumble to bits. How will it justify its aggressiveness? It tried hard to make Saddam Hussein into a proxy, but it did not work. It cannot.

Osama has never headed any government, has no palaces, does not have an address, and has no specific group of followers. Whatever be anyone’s views, he is a phenomenon beyond any contrived PR exercise. He is Elvis without the crutch of Graceland; he is Michael Jackson without the oxygen mask.

One thing comes out clear: Bush would be in no hurry to feel triumphant. He needs to pretend to find Osama, and he can find him only if he is alive. So, W will try hard to deny that his nemesis is dead. He will imagine a threat from some other country and again the charade of an Osama-like dictator will be touted before the American public and the world.

More patriotism would be whipped up. I can imagine the US President saying, “Gaad, Lard-in cannot just die of tie-fied. It ain’t like a new-monia, y’know? You gotta be kiddin’. The guy’s in a cave in Pack-is-tan. Ah am tryin’ to ged their Prez to send his men in dem caves and ah-ll help him with that Cash-mere prahblem. That ain’t so bad. Been readin’ Camus. It’s all ‘bout outsiders. Darn, these Eendian and Pack-is-tanians jest don’t read books. I haf-ta thank Laura and the Lord…”