What makes you so great you "Great Raisuli" you?

I just caught the end of "The Wind and the Lion" on American Movie Classics, one of my favorite movies and Sean Connery at his finest. This is a movie that most guys love and most girls will tolerate.

The story revolves around a Muslim tribal leader who kidnaps an American diplomat's wife and children using them as bargaining chips in the pre-WW1 middle east. Though it has aged somewhat and is best viewed as an 8th Grade boy, I was still driven to sit through the last 30 minutes just to hear the Raisuli read his letter to President Roosevelt:

Raisuli : To Theodore Roosevelt -- you are like the Wind and I like the Lion. You form the Tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the Ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours.
- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates.

I can't resist, here is another one:

Sherif of Wazan : Great Raisuli, we have lost everything. All is drifting on the wind as you said. We have lost everything.
Raisuli : Sherif, is there not one thing in your life that is worth losing everything for?


If only there was some hidden message in these lines that we could apply to today's world....Hmmm.