The most startling aspect of Osama Bin Laden's recent tape is the reason he gives for wanting a truce:

Both sides will benefit from such a cease fire, from security and stability, and we will build Iraq and Afghanistan which have been destroyed in the war.

In other words, it seems that the wanton destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan brought about by the Jihadists were alienating Muslims just as the string of beheadings did. It would be a mistake to forget that nothing is more important to Bin Laden and his ilk than capturing the hearts and minds of the Muslim world. The Muslim youth is watching China and India competing more and more successfully with the West and it is no longer possible to sell it the defunct theory that Western advocacy of democracy and economic development are merely concept designed to camouflage vile neo-colonialism.

Muslims, especially those living in the Diaspora, cannot miss the new found confidence of young Chinese and Indians. They know they are building great new prosperous civilizations and earning worldwide respect in the process. The same cannot be said about young Muslims. Their world is viewed as one inhabited by dangerous and self destructive teenagers. The only question preoccupying the world is how much time and resources must be spared from the exciting worldwide economic race to deal with these Jihadist trouble makers.

"We, too, wish to participate in that race to the top," Bin Laden hears Muslims saying."We, too, wish to hold our heads high and not dread that each coming day will bring news of more Jihadist"operations" that we will have to explain away."

Forget his posturing and notice how OBL acknowledges that terrorist atrocities caused the world to distrust him and his people. How else do you explain his efforts to convince his Western audience that he, and, indeed, the Muslim Ummah in whose name he has the Chutzpah to claim to speak, can be trusted:

We have no objection to accepting a long-term cease fire under fair conditions which we will uphold. We are a nation forbidden by Allah to betray and lie.

In other words, appearances and polls aside, if Osama's instincts are right, the Jihadists are losing big time and additional mega-terrorist"operations" would do little to help their cause. That is the reason he is suing for truce. It seems that slowly, but surely, more and more Muslims want to choose life and are increasingly resentful of the Jihadists who stand in their way.