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Harry! My God, when I read your note, I
had to rush back and read what I had said, sure that I had wrongly expressed
myself, or omitted a crucial ‘not’ – but no. <grin> Cheers, Lawry From: Harry Pollard
[mailto: Lawry, I wrote to Ed, then came across your post. We’ve got to stop agreeing like this. It’s probably bad for us. Harry ******************************* of 818 352-4141 ******************************* From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Yes, Ed, I think it is clear: violent
resistance to oppressive regimes and policies is spread out over multiple
groups and individuals around the world, for whom religion is either irrelevant
or a tactical asset. There is no centralization, nor ‘places’
nor individuals to be destroyed to get rid of this violent resistance. At
most there are cooperative networks. The Despite the repressions associated with
several “anti-terrorist” countries, their policies almost assure
the emergence of an increasingly effective ability of people to resist those
repressions. My only surprise is that people were
surprised by the And I suppose that until the mindset
changes, people will continue to be surprised. There is now in Washington a
small number of people who understand this, and who are struggling to get the I am not suggesting that before Bush
Washington was a mecca of intelligent policy making, but it was dramatically
better, whether prior presidents were Republican or Democrat. So, to help mitigate the surprise factor,
let us again repeat: things will get far worse, in the I know this may strike some on this list
as bleak, but there it is, folks. As the old saying goes, People have to lie
in the beds they made. Cheers, Lawry From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Ed Weick I find this line of thought
scary. It suggests that terrorisim of the kind that precipitated the
During the sixties and seventies people
thought they could change the system or even bring it down by marching,
shouting and throwing rocks. That doesn't work any more. The
globalized state has become immune to it. Much stronger means are now
required. Ed July 22, 2005 Why
Do They Hate Us? Not Because of
By OLIVIER WHILE
yesterday's explosions on London's subway and bus lines were thankfully far
less serious than those of two weeks ago, they will lead many to raise a
troubling question: has Britain (and Spain as well) been "punished"
by Al Qaeda for participating in the American-led military interventions in
Iraq and Afghanistan? While this is a reasonable line of thinking, it
presupposes the answer to a broader and more pertinent question: Are the roots
of Islamic terrorism in the Middle Eastern conflicts? If the
answer is yes, the solution is simple to formulate, although not to achieve:
leave Conflicts
in the First,
let's consider the chronology. The Americans went to Another
motivating factor, we are told, was the presence of "infidel" troops
in Islam's holy lands. Yes, Osama Bin Laden was reported to be upset when the
Saudi royal family allowed Western troops into the kingdom before the Persian
Gulf war. But Mr. bin Laden was by that time a veteran fighter committed to
global jihad. He and
the other members of the first generation of Al Qaeda left the Middle East to
fight the Soviet Union in From the
beginning, Al Qaeda's fighters were global jihadists, and their favored
battlegrounds have been outside the Middle East: Second,
if the conflicts in What was
true for the first generation of Al Qaeda is also relevant for the present
generation: even if these young men are from Middle Eastern or South Asian
families, they are for the most part Westernized Muslims living or even born in
It is
also interesting to note that none of the Islamic terrorists captured so far
had been active in any legitimate antiwar movements or even in organized
political support for the people they claim to be fighting for. They don't
distribute leaflets or collect money for hospitals and schools. They do not
have a rational strategy to push for the interests of the Iraqi or Palestinian
people. Even
their calls for the withdrawal of the European troops from The
Western-based Islamic terrorists are not the militant vanguard of the Muslim
community; they are a lost generation, unmoored from traditional societies and
cultures, frustrated by a Western society that does not meet their
expectations. And their vision of a global ummah is both a mirror of and a form
of revenge against the globalization that has made them what they are. |
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