Perspectives On Our Global War With Terror
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Some interesting background articles on al-Qaeda and the war have been coming out and worth the read (with some skepticism of course). The LA Times ran an article looking at al-Qaeda which had some interesting details:
If Al Qaeda strikes the West in the coming months, it’s likely the mastermind will be a stocky Egyptian explosives expert with two missing fingers.
His alias is Abu Ubaida al Masri. Hardly anyone has heard of him outside a select circle of anti-terrorism officials and Islamic militants. But as chief of external operations for Al Qaeda, investigators say, he has one of the most dangerous — and endangered — jobs in international terrorism.
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Another long article came out in the UK Times about scholars doing research on al-Qaeda. Take this one with a couple of grains of salt because these people are full of themselves. But again I found it an interesting read. I will quibble with two claims they made then leave folks to read it at their leisure:
Bergen has also shed light on the thinking behind the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden’s intention was to provoke a US invasion of Afghanistan, whereupon the US would get stuck, like the Soviet Union had done in the 1980s, and eventually collapse from the economic burden of the war. It is ironic that the US would later choose to place itself in the situation envisaged by Bin Laden, not in Afghanistan, but in Iraq.
Well, we are not stuck and sinking in Iraq by a long shot. The US is not going to collapse in these terrorist wars - we are not losing people or material at rates we saw in Vietnam, Korea and WW II. This is where some bias sneaks into the interpretation - but the statement about Bin Laden’s intentions are enlightening. It shows a naivete that is quite astounding. If the scholars are naive to think Iraq would end America, then how naive was Bin Laden to think Afghanistan would end America? Afghanistan did not host the world’s 4th largest army at one time, like Iraq. As long as we don’t make similar bad judgement calls (like surrendering and running when there is no reason to) then we can defeat this enemy.
fyi