Bin Laden speaks — again

But Osama bin Laden has become the Wizard of Oz.

In Frank Baum’s classic children’s tale, a Kansas girl and her companions quake with fear when they’re first admitted to the presence of the great and powerful wizard with his thunder, his torches and his booming voice.

Similarly, when bin Laden first resurfaced in a videotape many months after the Sept. 11 murders, he was a figure of some wonder. Still alive? Still dressed like some bandit chieftain from the 10th century? Still pontificating and issuing demands? His very survival must have invigorated many a disgruntled Mideastern soul who somehow blames America for the failure of their own oil-rich potentates to elevate their nations out of superstition, poverty and fear.

But how scary would the Wizard of Oz be if he started coming on your TV twice a day to remind you to feed the cat and put out the garbage? Familiarity breeds contempt, and his very incongruity would quickly beg the “Saturday Night Live” gang to turn him into a recurring comedy sketch.

Bin Laden had sent the al-Jazeera television network three more lectures from the cave this fall — on Sept. 7, Sept. 11 and Sept. 20. If he were any more regular, he could become a for-credit correspondence course at Beirut University.

Now he’s back with his October message to the faithful — aired in the Middle East on Monday — urging Iraqi insurgents to unite and avoid “extremism.”

Before we try to figure out precisely how one becomes a more “moderate” terrorist, The Associated Press clarifies that bin Laden used the Arabic word “ta’assub,” which in traditional Islamic thought means extremism in allegiance or adherence to a group, “to a degree that excludes others.”

In other words, it’s come to the attention of this bargain-basement Mahdi that the Shiites and Sunnis are doing more harm to each other in Iraq these days than to your standard, old-fashioned Great Satan: us.

“Basically he encouraged the extreme elements — al-Qaida in Iraq particularly in the Sunni areas — to join together and be more effective in bringing terrorism and murder and suicide bombings to Iraq and to Anbar province,” explains Sen. John McCain, the only major presidential contender who’s actually been at war. “It’s a clear sign that we are succeeding in Iraq because people got very tired of al-Qaida taking their young women, killing their young women, killing their people, and acting in the most brutal fashion that they are.”

Indeed, bin Laden took the highly uncharacteristic step in Monday’s tape of acknowledging that al-Qaida had made mistakes. “Everybody can make a mistake, but the best of them are those who admit their mistakes,” he said. “Mistakes have been made during holy wars, but mujahideen have to correct their mistakes.”

The administration’s critics argue Iraq is the wrong war in the wrong place. Whether or not it was the wrong place, al-Qaida loyalists are the right enemy, they’re in Iraq, and we seem to be causing them some serious problems.

Yes, bin Laden survives. This is widely interpreted as evidence that America is not all-powerful. Fine. Some measure of humility is preferable to a fatal hubris.

But like the little old carnival huckster and snake-oil salesman who Dorothy’s dog found hiding behind the curtain in the palace of Oz, Osama bin Laden and his ululating clowns get less exotic and less scary all the time.

It takes patience to sidestep the larger “war with Islam” that this killer would like to foment. But we’ve got time.

Bin Laden’s, on the other hand, is clearly running out.