Pakistani Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussein on 60 Minutes tonight echoed what I have said again and again at Jihad Watch and elsewhere: that we are not facing a movement centered on a charismatic leader, but an ideology-driven movement that will not die if its leader is captured or killed. In “The Search For Bin Laden” from CBSNews (thanks to usashopper) he also gives us a Tiny Minority of Extremists Update:
We asked President Musharaff who he thinks is more popular in Pakistan — the United States or Osama bin Laden?
“That’s a very difficult question,” Mr. Musharaff replied. “Maybe Osama bin Laden. In the man in the street, it may be Osama bin Laden.”
Remember that the next time someone compares Osama to Tim McVeigh, saying that they are both on the fringes of their religions. When was McVeigh ever remotely that popular?
“Is it all that important to find him?” asks Safdar. “Even if he’s taken out tomorrow, his ideology is not going to come to an end. So, I don’t think that he’s that important that we should be overly concerned about his being dead or alive.”
It is not important that bin Laden be captured, he says, because, “What’s going to happen? Sentiments, they are going to get further aggravated, but their ideology will continue. It’s not going to stop here.”