Miko, I really hope you're just playing idiot's advocate with us.
Bin Laden is as vain as any other religious fanatic, prominant politician or high-profile celebrity. This isn't an opinion, rather a self-evident fact that comes out when you look just a nanometer or so beyond the very surface of his actions and his words.
I repeat... He's VAIN. As vain as Napoleon or Celine Dion or the Egyptian Priests who told the Pharoahs what do to and when to do it.
He can say all he wants about acting in the name of god or his people or whatever, but in the end, he's acting on his own behalf and nobody else's. Think about it--whose life has he improved through his actions? He killed a bunch of Americans and international visitors, causing the Americans to come in and unseat a government, not to mention kill a good percentage of his followers. Meanwhile, Bin Laden is nowhere to be seen, but he's as famous and as frightening as ever. Who has he benefited? Himself. Bin Laden is out for the glory of Bin Laden, plain and simple.
Even his fellow muslims, albeit the educated ones, confirm that the 72 virgins in heaven rumor is nothing but a fallacy, a method for militants to get their uneducated, often foolish young soldiers to do what they want. Bin Laden, your humble, brave warrior, is nothing but a manipulating, selfish status seeker, and though he may have had his moments during the Soviet occupation, those moments are history. He's chosen a far more direct route to international acclaim. He's leading an ascetic life right now, sure, but so did David Blaine when he locked himself in a plexiglass box over the Thames.
Concerning his speeches, yes, they're practical. They're practical propaganda that's several levels more sophisticated than anything else produced by Islamic extremists. No, he doesn't shout inarticulate phrases in English while waving his fist. he knows that that's old and stale. He remains calm and collected, very matter-of-fact and casual. He understands that withholding emotion while saying the things he says will elicit ten fold the emotion in his target audience--us, the Western observers. Hemingway used to do the same thing with his short, dry sentence structure, causing his readers to fill in the emotional void in their minds, rather than inundate them with heaps flowery words. Osama is merely playing to the people he knows will give a damn about what he says.
Finally, in regards to his bravery in the face of danger.... Britney Spears could kick his bellybutton and not break a sweat.
