Almost all the topics covered by Bin Laden from Kyoto to finances were old chestnuts of Dr. Zawahiri’s. They appear in past rants–now collected and translated in Raymond Ibrahim’s The Al Qaeda Reader .

The pathetic appearance of the terrorist, the embarrassing rambling talking points, and the almost complete absence of any confidence about current operations or promised “victories” in Iraq and Afghanistan surely will hurt his cause among the faithful.

He did not look or sound formidable, but more pathetic and embarrassing–a sin unforgivable to the jihadist mind.

In short, a comic-looking and verbose arch-terrorist doesn’t quite help the script of a Tet-like counteroffensive to destroy American will on the anniversary of 9/11 and the looming Petraeus / Crocker reports.

As for the Chomsky, Scheuer, and all the left-wing talking points echoed by bin Laden, what to make of that fallout?

What do you do when a mass-murderer not only finds you a fellow-traveler, but somehow manages to confirm everything that you deny–that radical Islam hates the West for what it is — capitalist, powerful, free, secular–rather than the particulars of what it does?

How odd that most Americans after six years of listening to al Qaeda rants came to the natural conclusion that his contradictory and always changing grievances were bogus, and that he instead was driven by a more elemental hatred of who we are-and now, despite all our “experts” and academic’ over-analyses-bin Laden once again confirms just that!