You are totally evading my questions. But lets follow your line of evasion and say it is a social movement because it does share many attributes with social movements. In particular, the largely Muslim anti-Western movement is highly decentralized. It spans many groups (Al Qeda being the most well known here) with a couple of well known figure heads (see OBL) but who have little vertical structure and no great organization besides a social/religious agreement on jihad against the West.
Lets say that Bin Laden and Zawahiri surrender. Do you think that is going to stop Al Qeda? Or any other radical Muslim group? Would that be enough to repeal the Patriot Act and stop warrantless domestic spying? What if we just killed Bin Laden and Zawahiri? Oddly enough, Bin Laden has said what it would take for him to lay down his arms against the US and Britain. I don't trust him or take him at his word but he at least knows what his end game is. What's yours? Judah On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 10:05 PM, Robert Munn <[email protected]> wrote: > Dana called Al Qaeda a social movement. If it is truly to become that, its > leadership must renounce violence, disarm, and become a legitimate social > movement. How does that happen? They sign a surrender document and surrender > for judgment at the hands of a war crimes court. The Hague would be fine > with me. > > What are the odds of Bin Laden and Zawahiri surrendering? I wonder if there > is a line on that with the London bookmakers? Actually, I'm going to blog > about this... > > > On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 9:30 PM, Judah M wrote: > >> Yes, I do. Twice isn't bad for almost 240 years. Especially as those >> were both in actual wars with a defined enemy and the realistic >> prospect of a win or loss or treaty. >> >> This is a "War on Terror". How the hell do you win that? You keep >> harping about how Al Queda is a non-nationstate and therefore things >> like the Geneva Convention don't apply. Well how do we define winning >> then? Losing? Who do we sign a peace agreement with? What are the >> circumstances when we'll be able to roll back the Patriot Act? When we >> kill Bin Laden? >> >> World War II was 4 years long (for the U.S.) Internment spanned less >> than 3 years. The Civil War was 4 years long and literally tore the >> country apart. We face no such threat to our country yet how long have >> we had it suspended now? >> >> Roosevelt was wrong to inter the Japanese-Americans during WWII. At >> least at the time though he could say that he'd release them when we >> defeated the Japanese. Bush was never able to say what it would take >> to close down Guantanamo. He moved us into a state of permanent war >> with no boundaries and used it as an excuse to undermine our most >> basic rights. That is unconscionable and unprecedented. >> >> Judah > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:286661 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
