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| Terror Networks |
| How al Qaeda Will Perish |
| 2008-03-25 |
| Brett Stephens, WSJ . . . There really is a broad rethink sweeping the Muslim world about the practical utility -- and moral defensibility -- of terrorism, particularly since al Qaeda began targeting fellow Sunni Muslims, as it did with the 2005 suicide bombings of three hotels in Amman, Jordan. Al Qaeda knows this. Osama bin Laden is no longer quite the folk hero he was in 2001. Reports of al Qaeda's torture chambers in Iraq have also percolated through Arab consciousness, replacing, to some extent, the images of Abu Ghraib. Even among Saudis, a recent survey by Terror Free Tomorrow finds that "less than one in ten Saudis have a favorable opinion of Al Qaeda, and 88 percent approve the Saudi military and police pursuing Al Qaeda fighters." No less significant is that the rejection of al Qaeda is not a liberal phenomenon, in the sense that it represents a more tolerant mindset or a better opinion of the U.S. On the contrary, this is a revolt of the elders, whether among the tribal chiefs of Anbar province or Islamist godfathers like Sayyed Imam. They have seen through (or punctured) the al Qaeda mythology of standing for an older, supposedly truer form of Islam. Rather, they have come to know al Qaeda as fundamentally a radical movement -- the antithesis of the traditional social order represented by the local sovereign, the religious establishment, the head of the clan and, not least, the father who expects to know the whereabouts of his children. It would be a delightful irony if militant Islam were ultimately undone by a conservative, Thermidor-style reaction. That may not be the kind of progress most of us imagined or hoped for. But it is progress of a kind. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #6 I don't have the source at hand, but I recall an earlier theory that radical Islam, and for that matter Arabian Islam, would succumb ultimately not to "western" efforts, but rather to "southern" forces - the hilarious irony being the rise of Nigerian Anglicanism, Ethiopian Orthodoxy, or some combination of Central African Christian conquest. Whatever, if it ever happens remotely along these lines, it would be an epochal event of millennial magnitude. |
| Posted by: Harcourt Jush7795 2008-03-25 21:06 |
| #5 The irony here is that iff many peace-minded or "moderate" traditional Muslims are truly worried about Islam becoming obsolete and sufferring a USSR-style implosion, then their "tradional social order" MUST CHANGE TO PREVENT SAID OBSOLESCENCE OR IMPLOSION, WHICH MANY BELIEVE WAS ALREADY OCCURRING WID OR WIDOUT OSAMA + 9-11 EVENT. The dilemma remians, then, is to resist violence and using jihad as a basis for Radical Terror and REPRESSIVE Mil Conquest, while also reforming and improving Islam as an GOD-BASED ANTI-TOTALITARIANIST BUT CONSERVATIVE-PLURALIST overt model for Govt-Society. As for AL QAEDA, OSAMA's NEW MESSAGE > THE WORLD + WOT IS ENTERING A POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS PHASE. OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM HAVE CHOSEN TO PROTECT NUCLEARIZING IRAN = "ISLAMIST BOMB" BY DIVERTING INTENSIFIED INSURGENT EFFORTS TO NATIONS OUTSIDE OF IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN, aka " hitting/attacking where US forces are not". They have repeatedly read on the US MSM that POTUS Dubya will perceivably seemingly NOT take any signif mil action agz Iran during the 2008 campaign year - HOWEVER, US ENTRENCHMENT IN THE ME-MUSLIM WORLD STILL NEEDS TO BE STOPPED COLD AS THERE IS NO GUARANTY THAT ANY POST-DUBYA GOP/DEM POTUS WILL END THE US PRESENCE IN THE ME TO THE EXTENT DESIRED BY RADICAL ISLAMISM. POST-JAN 2009 > To continue their Regional-Global Jihad despite a potent albeit par? or reduced? US presence RISKS RADICAL ISLAMISM PUTTING THEIR AGENDA INTO THE DUBIOUS SUBJECTIVE HANDS/CONTROL OF ANTI/NON-ISLAMIST, "INFIDEL" WORLD POWERS. IOW, OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM [Islam?] WILL HAD IDEOLOGICALLY + REALISTICALLY FAILED TO DEFEAT OR DESTROY ANTI/NON-ISLAMISM-ISLAM, i.e. HAD FAILED ALLAH/GOD + MUHAMMED. * CAN AQ + RADICAL ISLAMISM ACCEPT BECOMING A SOLELY POLITICAL FORCE, ONE AMONGST MANY, AND CONTROLLED BY ANTI/NON-MUSLIMS + ISLAMISTS??? The OSAMA BIN LADEN, etc. THAT I REMEMBER WOULD NOT ACCEPT THIS. OSAMA > ISLAM-ONLY TOTAL VICTORY, versus ISLAM-ONLY TOTAL DEFEAT; OSAMA > "THE TIME IS NOW/TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE", NOT A "LONG WAR" KIND OF GUY = WHITNEY HUSTON FAN. Osama + Islamists need the "ISLAMIST BOMB" NOW, WHICH MEANS PROTECTING NUCLEARIZING IRAN, ETAL. + ASSISTING IN CARVING OUT IRANIAN EMPIRE = IRAN-CENTRIC ISLAMIST BLOC OF NATIONS [read - PERSIAN OTTOMAN EMPIRE, sub-read - RUSSIA + CENASIA]. Any options for AMER HIROSHIMA are likely being dusted off as we speak. * Iff, by chance, that OSAMA is de facto forced to accept a "long war" scenario agz non-Islamism, IMO IT WILL ONLY BE IFF HE'S DEAD, OR MUSHROOM CLOUDS ARE GOING OFF IN EVERY MAJOR WORLD NATION, i.e. A WORLD AT WAR. The TEN-YEAR" maxima timeline goes as much agz the USA as it does agz Radical Islamism. REALITY > THE "LONG WAR", FOR BOTH, CAN'T BE SAME. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-03-25 20:44 |
| #4 The irony here is that iff many peace-minded or "moderate" traditional Muslims are truly worried about Islam becoming obsolete and sufferring a USSR-style implosion, then their "tradional social order" MUST CHANGE TO PREVENT SAID OBSOLESCENCE OR IMPLOSION, WHICH MANY BELIEVE WAS ALREADY OCCURRING WID OR WIDOUT OSAMA + 9-11 EVENT. The dilemma remians, then, is to resist violence and using jihad as a basis for Radical Terror and REPRESSIVE Mil Conquest, while also reforming and improving Islam as an GOD-BASED ANTI-TOTALITARIANIST BUT CONSERVATIVE-PLURALIST overt model for Govt-Society. As for AL QAEDA, OSAMA's NEW MESSAGE > THE WORLD + WOT IS ENTERING A POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS PHASE. OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM HAVE CHOSEN TO PROTECT NUCLEARIZING IRAN = "ISLAMIST BOMB" BY DIVERTING INTENSIFIED INSURGENT EFFORTS TO NATIONS OUTSIDE OF IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN, aka " hitting/attacking where US forces are not". They have repeatedly read on the US MSM that POTUS Dubya will perceivably seemingly NOT take any signif mil action agz Iran during the 2008 campaign year - HOWEVER, US ENTRENCHMENT IN THE ME-MUSLIM WORLD STILL NEEDS TO BE STOPPED COLD AS THERE IS NO GUARANTY THAT ANY POST-DUBYA GOP/DEM POTUS WILL END THE US PRESENCE IN THE ME TO THE EXTENT DESIRED BY RADICAL ISLAMISM. POST-JAN 2009 > To continue their Regional-Global Jihad despite a potent albeit par? or reduced? US presence RISKS RADICAL ISLAMISM PUTTING THEIR AGENDA INTO THE DUBIOUS SUBJECTIVE HANDS/CONTROL OF ANTI/NON-ISLAMIST, "INFIDEL" WORLD POWERS. IOW, OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM [Islam?] WILL HAD IDEOLOGICALLY + REALISTICALLY FAILED TO DEFEAT OR DESTROY ANTI/NON-ISLAMISM-ISLAM, i.e. HAD FAILED ALLAH/GOD + MUHAMMED. * CAN AQ + RADICAL ISLAMISM ACCEPT BECOMING A SOLELY POLITICAL FORCE, ONE AMONGST MANY, AND CONTROLLED BY ANTI/NON-MUSLIMS + ISLAMISTS??? The OSAMA BIN LADEN, etc. THAT I REMEMBER WOULD NOT ACCEPT THIS. OSAMA > ISLAM-ONLY TOTAL VICTORY, versus ISLAM-ONLY TOTAL DEFEAT; OSAMA > "THE TIME IS NOW/TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE", NOT A "LONG WAR" KIND OF GUY = WHITNEY HUSTON FAN. Osama + Islamists need the "ISLAMIST BOMB" NOW, WHICH MEANS PROTECTING NUCLEARIZING IRAN, ETAL. + ASSISTING IN CARVING OUT IRANIAN EMPIRE = IRAN-CENTRIC ISLAMIST BLOC OF NATIONS [read - PERSIAN OTTOMAN EMPIRE, sub-read - RUSSIA + CENASIA]. Any options for AMER HIROSHIMA are likely being dusted off as we speak. * Iff, by chance, that OSAMA is de facto forced to accept a "long war" scenario agz non-Islamism, IMO IT WILL ONLY BE IFF HE'S DEAD, OR MUSHROOM CLOUDS ARE GOING OFF IN EVERY MAJOR WORLD NATION, i.e. A WORLD AT WAR. The TEN-YEAR" maxima timeline goes as much agz the USA as it does agz Radical Islamism. REALITY > THE "LONG WAR", FOR BOTH, CAN'T BE SAME. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-03-25 20:43 |
| #3 "How al Qaeda Will Perish" Painfully and SOON, I hope. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-03-25 18:46 |
| #2 This evil should perish. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-03-25 14:48 |
| #1 the old 'force vs. subversion' debate that went on among the Communist party for 80 years or so |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-03-25 13:11 |