Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Time to talk to Al Qaeda?
The Boston Globe ^ | September 14, 2005 | Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou

Posted on 09/14/2005 7:26:38 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough

AS THE WAR between the United States and Al Qaeda enters its fifth year, the nature of the armed, transnational Islamist group's campaign remains misunderstood. With the conflict viewed largely as an open-and-shut matter of good versus evil, nonmilitary engagement with Al Qaeda is depicted as improper and unnecessary.

Yet developing a strategy for the next phase of the global response to Al Qaeda requires understanding the enemy -- something Western analysts have systematically failed to do. Sept. 11 was not an unprovoked, gratuitous act. It was a military operation researched and planned since at least 1996 and conducted by a trained commando in the context of a war that had twice been declared officially and publicly. The operation targeted two military locations and a civilian facility regarded as the symbol of US economic and financial power. The assault was the culmination of a larger campaign, which forecast impact, planned for the enemy's reaction, and was designed to gain the tactical upper hand.

Overwhelmingly centered on the martial aspects of the conflict, scholars and policymakers have been too focused on Al Qaeda's ''irrationality," ''fundamentalism," and ''hatred" -- and these conceptions continue to color key analyses. The sway of such explanations is particularly surprising in the face of nonambiguous statements made by Al Qaeda as to the main reasons for its war on the United States. These have been offered consistently since 1996, notably in the August 1996 and February 1998 declarations of war and the November 2002 and October 2004 justifications for its continuation.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; US: Connecticut; US: District of Columbia; US: New Jersey; US: New York; US: Pennsylvania; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; alqaeda; clymer; conflict; dc; harvard; harvardislamist; harvardpetrodollars; idiot; international; moron; negotiation; ny; pa; runawayrunaway; treason; war
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-130 next last
Um... words fail me.
1 posted on 09/14/2005 7:26:42 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

After we kill them and bury their bodies with a pig, we can talk...


2 posted on 09/14/2005 7:27:35 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - They want to die for Islam, and we want to kill them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

boston globe is all I had to read . . . .


3 posted on 09/14/2005 7:27:48 AM PDT by smonk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Its from Boston.... The city and state that actually elected Ted Kennedy. Says it all....


4 posted on 09/14/2005 7:28:13 AM PDT by Sprite518
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough
"Sept. 11 was not an unprovoked, gratuitous act."

I stopped reading here. How 'bout we just kill Al Qaeda? That sounds good to me.

5 posted on 09/14/2005 7:28:24 AM PDT by jjm2111 (99.7 FM Radio Kuwait)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2banana
---After we kill them and bury their bodies with a pig, we can talk...---

wow. what have you got against pigs?

6 posted on 09/14/2005 7:28:33 AM PDT by smonk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Definitely set up a meeting with ALL the Al-Qaueda leaders in a tent in the middle of a remote desert (for security of course) as soon as all the alquaeda are there ....

>>> BOOM! <<<

Oh well - they didn't like us to begin with !


7 posted on 09/14/2005 7:28:49 AM PDT by hombre_sincero (www.sigmaitsys.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

I know it is against the rules to post without reading an entire article, but I just couldn't. Is this more of the "blame America" diatribes, considering it is from the Boston Globe?


8 posted on 09/14/2005 7:28:55 AM PDT by mlc9852
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Can't we all just get along.


9 posted on 09/14/2005 7:29:02 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (If the dome was the hull of a slave ship. Ray Nagin was the slaver and Bush is Abraham Lincoln)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sprite518

And Barney Frank.


10 posted on 09/14/2005 7:29:04 AM PDT by Senator Goldwater
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Time to boot this quisling and the newsprint rag that gives him a platform.


11 posted on 09/14/2005 7:29:25 AM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies should be as pedantic as possible. I love that so much.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

check the byline: Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou


12 posted on 09/14/2005 7:29:28 AM PDT by smonk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough
Rodney King deja vu all over again: "Can't we all just get along?"
13 posted on 09/14/2005 7:30:22 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Islam Factoid:After forcing young girls to watch his men execute their fathers, Muhammad raped them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough
Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou is associate director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University.
14 posted on 09/14/2005 7:30:51 AM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies should be as pedantic as possible. I love that so much.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Uh, yeah! Dear Al Qaeda, die you murdering scum bags.


15 posted on 09/14/2005 7:31:22 AM PDT by Ursus arctos horribilis ("It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!" Emiliano Zapata 1879-1919)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough
It was a military operation researched and planned

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

It doesn't take much military planning or expertise to take over four civilian, commercial passenger airliners and crash them into buildings filled with civilians. A military operation? You've got to be effing kidding me. It was a sniveling, cowardly, punk-assed murder operation.

16 posted on 09/14/2005 7:31:31 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Senator Goldwater

not to mention John (Vietnam) Kerry


17 posted on 09/14/2005 7:31:33 AM PDT by Gone_Postal (government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take it away)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: 2banana
After we kill them and bury their bodies with a pig, we can talk...

..actually introducing them to the pig with who their going to be buried with might be the proper thing to do, after all the pig didn't know anything

Doogle

18 posted on 09/14/2005 7:31:44 AM PDT by Doogle (8th AF...4077thTFW....408thMMS....Ubon Thailand "69"..Night Line Delivery ..AMMO)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

You forgot barf alert


19 posted on 09/14/2005 7:31:59 AM PDT by eclectic (Liberalism is a mental disorder)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Senator Goldwater
Oh and we cannot forget Mr. Band-aid Purple Heart John Kerry.
20 posted on 09/14/2005 7:32:25 AM PDT by Sprite518
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-130 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson