From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [CubaNews] It Will Take More than Bombs to Beat Al-Qaeda Via NY Transfer News * www.blythe.org * All the News That Doesn't Fit The Daily Star (Lebanon) http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/08_10_01_a.htm DailyStar: Opinion It will take more than bombs to beat Al-Qaeda Few people anywhere on Earth were surprised by the onset of US-led air and missile strikes in Afghanistan on Sunday night: Washington's ability to respond massively after the events of Sept. 11 has never been in doubt, and now both Osama bin Laden's organization and the Taleban regime that has refused to hand him over are getting a taste of the US military's prodigious capacity to mete out destruction. The Bush administration has promised all along, however, that its "war on terrorism" would not be a one-dimensional one, that it would also take diplomatic and financial steps to rob bin Laden of the support he needs to conduct attacks in the United States or other countries. Now it needs to back that promise up, especially after bin Laden released a videotape in which he tacitly took responsibility for the thousands of deaths at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Much has been made of the Saudi radical's having despoiled the principles of Islam to justify mass murder and inspire members of his Al-Qaeda organization, but Sunday's speech went one step further by hijacking legitimate grievances against US policy felt by people everywhere, not just Arabs and Muslims. Washington must respond to bin Laden's political message with as much sophistication as its military has shown over Afghanistan: His claim to legitimacy must be shown for the fraud that it is. This process has to be a natural extension to the financial and military operations under way. Bank accounts and other assets have been frozen to curtail bin Laden's funding. And apart from Al-Qaeda training camps, US and British attacks have also targeted Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, and Kandahar, the Taleban's "spiritual headquarters," in hopes of convincing those who have granted bin Laden sanctuary to change their ways. The next step is to rob him of the moral and other support that he might otherwise obtain from the Arab and Islamic world by pretending to share the concerns of normal people. One does not have to be an extremist to be appalled by the plight of the Iraqi people under stringent UN sanctions championed primarily by the United States; one does not have to be a terrorist to rage against what Israel has gotten away with in the Occupied Territories every day of every month of every year since 1967; and one does not have to be a militant to be angered by the fact that when the "Israel Defense Forces" go on the offensive in the West Bank or Gaza, they do so with American-built warplanes, helicopters, bombs and missiles. Does this mean that reasonable people support the wholesale slaughter of civilians? No. But it does challenge Washington to prove bin Laden wrong by demonstrating its earnest desire to address the issues listed above and honoring its pledge that it has no intention of making war on Islam. Even if the Americans get lucky and bin Laden is killed in the air strikes, he will have won a victory of sorts, however tainted and Pyrrhic, if these and other questions are left hanging. This can best be accomplished by an immediate US push for a fair resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Then no one will even want to remember bin Laden, let alone support him. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
