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"Bedfellows"  
Fantasy&SF 2005 06
Author Harry Turtledove
First Appearance Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Collected Atlantis and Other Places
The Best of Harry Turtledove
Genre(s) Political Satire
Publication date June, 2005

"Bedfellows" is a short story by Harry Turtledove, first published in Fantasy & Science Fiction (June, 2005), and reprinted in Atlantis and Other Places (December, 2010) and The Best of Harry Turtledove (April, 2021). It is a sharp and none-too-subtle political satire, depicting a same-sex marriage between two characters known only as "O" and "W". Although never named, characteristics displayed by both characters make it abundantly clear that the newly married couple is Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush.

The satire's fundamental point is that, for better and for worse, the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, which were in part masterminded by bin Laden, defined Bush's presidency and bin Laden's status as a hero among extremist Muslims. Turtledove takes that inextricable link between the two men, and takes it to its most illogical extreme.

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