In The Footsteps of Bin Laden - CNN Special

Jay S. Parsons opines:

After watching the CNN special about Osama Bin Laden, I am struck by the way Osama seems to be in essence a rich man's brat with a psychopathic homicidal slant. His arrogance and self-aggrandizement would be simply pathetic if he wasn't enthusiastically orchestrating the mass murder of innocent people to further his own situation. His business of promoting himself with propaganda upon flimsy evidence of doing anything meriting acclaim is laughable. His media appearances exhibit an attempt at romanticizing the particular condescending bohemian lifestyle for which he has acquired a taste. And putridly cool is his pseudo-intellectually pious demeanor and his subdued narcissistic attitude while basking in the limelight of numerous sycophants and fellow travelers. He is less the principled warrior, engaging in incrementalism with regard to his intended victims (at first eschewing civilian targets in favor of military targets, then, after experiencing no deterring denouncement among Muslims, callously expanding his deadly rhetoric and his calculated rapaciousness to all), and he is much more the merchant of death, organizing Al Qaeda along corporate lines with himself as CEO and pedaling death by the plane load through his loyal militant Islamic minions. Little by little he has learned how to manipulate the emotions of others and how to make airhead self-absorbed women swoon for his sake and how to make hate-filled wannabe men murder for his sake all under the guise and cachet of a religion; that skill is built upon some kind of talent, no doubt. Over the years, similar talent has been exhibited by the likes of Charles Manson. Come to think of it, Bin Laden might have some serious commonality with Charles Manson; although Charlie, a small-scale operator, hasn't had Bin Laden's rich-kid blues.