The cowards are the ones who haven't the guts to openly declare war and come at you in a frontal assault for which you might prepare. Instead, they do things like plant bombs, use humans as shields, and fly planes into buildings.
Ted, I have to take exception to this. Coming by frontal assault may be the courageous way in your book ... but it may not be everybody's way
Agreed Jackie, though perhaps on a different basis. "Courage" is not ignoring risk to one's life -- that is foolhardiness, or ignorance of the risk. Courage means that after taking all steps to keep one's skin intact, one is willing to proceed: one can face the risk or certainty of one's own death without being paralyzed by it.
Patton said, "War isn't about dying for your country. It's about making the other bastard die for his country." bin Ladin is taking steps to keep himself intact, to fight again another day. That is not "cowardice", it's tactical prudence.
The events of last Tuesday give us no basis for deciding whether he personally is a coward. My guess, based on the little I've read of his prior activity in Afghanistan, against the Russians) is that he is not a coward.
