Why Osama Bin Laden Should Be Deemed the Most Influential Person of 2006

Osama Bin Laden is still alive at the end of 2006. Given his behavior and actions described later on in this piece, that alone makes him influential.

Much is made about Time Magazine's "Person of the Year." People were outraged when the Ayatullah Khomeini made this list in 1979, for being infamous, as opposed to famous. As such, let's take a look at the word influential to make sure we're all on the same page. Influential does not equate with "good" or "positive" behavior. It simply means: powerful, important, significant, dominant or prominent. None of these are synonymous with good.

A quick search on "Osama" from Associated Content's library brought up 22 pages. A search on Bill Gates brought about a similar number. A search on Hillary Clinton brought about only 12 pages here at Associated Content. Mind you, Clinton's name is currently being bantered about as the first female president for the United States. Still people at Associated Content are writing about Bin Laden almost twice as much.

Put all of that in perspective: Osama Bin Laden lives thousands of miles away, purportedly in a cave, and people are talking about him more than Hillary Clinton who is roaming the streets of New York and Washington D.C. quite publicly, trying to get attention. This is a woman who could be the first female president in U.S. history. Without a doubt then Osama Bin Laden has a far-reaching hand, albeit it in a Darth Vader sort of way.

If you consider influential as a way of looking at whether or not a person is having or has had an impact on a group of people, Bin Laden is an obvious choice. He may not impact a person directly, but we must consider the trickle down effect. Those in the military have certainly been touched, and by extension so have their immediate and extended families. The towns in which these families live are full of people who are impacted by the fact that these families live there. In 2003, Time Magazine's Person of the Year was the American Soldier. Would that have happened without Bin Laden?