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Originally Posted by Vandave |
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I am not following you here.  |
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Let’s go back a few years and think about if we really needed to worry about a terrorist threat. Did we really need to see the U.S. mobilize so much effort for what is relatively a small chance?
Have we not blown it out of all proportion? Al-Qaeda was a very amateurish group that got lucky and made a big splash. Their attack on 9/11 succeeded spectacularly well but was really nothing very sophisticated.
What have been the consequences since then? Well two wars for starters (Afghanistan and Iraq) but also an over reaction (innocents in jail, a sense of fear, domestic spying). Would you not say that we have been manipulated by the media and political agendas?
Terrorism is a technique used because these groups are weak – they don’t have the means or manpower for anything else. They achieve maximum impact with a minimal amount of effort.
I have said that more Americans die every month from guns than did on 9/11 but we don’t see a “war on guns”. Surely this would be less expensive than the present “war on terrorism”.
The Islamist terrorists are a very small group whose power is needlessly exaggerated. The American reaction to 9/11 has given fuel to this small group and helped recruit more into their fold as well as inspire others.
The Arab world is a disaster for various reasons and, yes, there is an Islamist project that is undertaken to give hope to many Muslims. Islamists are a political movement in many countries.
The goal of Islamist is quite ridiculous but in their frame of optics, I would guess reasonable to them.
Let’s take a look at Afghanistan. The Taliban were able to take control because the country had fallen apart after years of war. Some say they were lucky because Afghans wanted any government after years of war. Furthermore, the Taliban received help from the Pakistani government via the (ISI agency) looking to stabilize that region after the Soviet retreat.
The “utopia” they tried to create there was a disaster. In the Muslim world, these same Islamist radical carried out certain attacks but certainly made little political gains.
It’s ironic how world powers used these extremist political movements for their own use.
Israel helped Hamas as an opponent to the PLO.
In Afghanistan the USA backed Islamists with money and weapons. The goal was for Russia to be backed into supporting the government in Kabul. Warlord attacked the Kabul government. The fight against the Russians in Afghanistan because a magnet for young radicals who gained experience there. We can thank the CIA for helping organize Bin Laden and his ilk as they wanted to defeat the Soviets.
The Islamic revolution that you think threatened the Western world was mostly dead. To help get their revolution under way, what better way to rally the troops than get the more powerful nation drawn into attacking them?
Lessons of Vietnam are not lost on these terrorists – America won almost every battle there yet still lost the war. What better way to win the hearts and mind of people of a certain country to your ideology than to have foreigners use overwhelming force against you?
Bin Laden focused on attacking the West and the US in particular (a few bombing here and there with a focus on the attack in the NewYork). In trying to gain more followers to his Islamist project. It’s been said that Osama hoped for a U.S. invasion of Afghanistan as this would mobilize followers from every Muslim state to his cause. The U.S. over-reacted and the net effect has been positive for the Islamist project.
There still has not been a massive revolt in Muslim countries against their governments and a replacement of regimes by the zealots – in that sense Bin Laden has failed. What we call al-Qaeda is a high-profile group but with very little power.
Now most of this should have been handled differently except that in the U.S. the neo-cons had their own agenda. The attacks on American soil were an excuse for full
Pax Americana and PNACs plans.
And that sound you are hearing? It is us getting sucked into a quagmire…
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