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 previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-130 next last
To: smonk

This guy is crackers. It would figure that he would be affiliated with that gleaming example of tolerance, Harvard University. In the Harvard Yard, no outrage is too small, and no dumb idea is too big.


41 posted on 09/14/2005 7:39:28 AM PDT by RexBeach (Pardon me, but is that a malaise sandwich in your pocket or are you just glad to be in a funk?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Mark for later deportation?


42 posted on 09/14/2005 7:39:37 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

"Sept. 11 was not an unprovoked, gratuitous act."

Reminds me of Ed Asner when he said Kuwait was taunting Saddam with all their oil and wealth and Saddam was compelled to invade them to help his people.


43 posted on 09/14/2005 7:39:50 AM PDT by JimDingle (Give Dingle a Jingle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: jjm2111

They hate the West. Why are they here ?


44 posted on 09/14/2005 7:39:57 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

I wish he'd just be honest and tell us that we should just relax and let Islam take over the world. Convert or die. Don't fight it.


45 posted on 09/14/2005 7:40:09 AM PDT by Montfort (The looting has only just begun. Now it is Congress' turn to loot.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough
What I think about Al Queda, what their issues are, or what their "root causes" are...

The thought of people leaping from the tops of the Twin Towers is a typical example of dialog emanating from Al Queda. You would think that would be enough, but...apparently not.

46 posted on 09/14/2005 7:40:10 AM PDT by rlmorel ("Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does." Whittaker Chambers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough
Great idea....we can talk to them and then hand over our wives, daughters, sons, money, property, dignity, freedoms, liberties, differing religions, our nation, and then bow to them while they rape the women and children, then butcher them, and then cut off our heads and drag all our corpses around the streets shooting weapons in the air while praising Allah and their victory over evil.

This will appease the radical Muslims and their religion, they will be forever happy, and there will never be any more terrorism or evil men in the world, right?

47 posted on 09/14/2005 7:40:45 AM PDT by RSmithOpt (Liberalism: Highway to Hell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

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

Come again? Incredible!

This guy is a perfect example of why we need to ratchet up the was on terror and blow them all off the face of the Earth. If he cannot see that the attacks against innocent civilians, simply living their lives and going to work was completely inexcusable then he just does not get it. There is NOTHING we as a nation have done that can excuse 9-11. Not one thing. End of story.

48 posted on 09/14/2005 7:41:02 AM PDT by blinachka (Vechnaya Pamyat Daddy... xoxo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Perhaps if we hadn't said such mean things about Hitler he wouldn't have gassed as many Jews.


49 posted on 09/14/2005 7:41:26 AM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lady lawyer
Anyone who would dignify the cold-blooded murder committed on 9/11 by calling it a "military" action is an enemy to civilized society.

Well said.

50 posted on 09/14/2005 7:41:49 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough
Take a long, honest look at the situation between the "Palestinians" and Israel. Look at the history. Look at all the varied attempts at peace negotiations and concessions over the years. Then, when you've finished counting the mutilated bodies of innocent men, women and children murdered by Islamist terrorists, frequently during or immediately after peace negotiations, we'll see if you can even ask the question "Should we talk with [insert name of murderous Islamic terrorist organization here]?" with a straight face.
51 posted on 09/14/2005 7:42:07 AM PDT by TChris ("The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail" - Goh Chok Tong)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Chamberlain talked and talked and talked. Hitler acted. Millions died.


52 posted on 09/14/2005 7:42:42 AM PDT by cynicom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

Negotiation will resemble the Clintonian President in "Independence Day" asking the capture alien what they want, with the answer beig "Just Die".


53 posted on 09/14/2005 7:43:54 AM PDT by Semper Paratus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vbmoneyspender
I guess those stewardesses whose throats they slit were considered to be in the military because they were wearing uniforms.

Don't you know it takes years and years of military training and an advanced degree from the Naval War College in Newport before one can even hope to cut a flight attendant's throat with a utility knife? Come now, it must be true, since Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou the Academic insists it's true.

54 posted on 09/14/2005 7:44:26 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

I guess this lunatic didn't bother to ask himself if Al-Qaeda is supposedly acting rationally, why it didn't bother to negotiate with us before launching strikes. Al-Qaeda is nothing more than a group of crazed, fanatical killers who want to turn the clock back to the seventh century. There is no negotiating with them. I don't want to negotiate with them, I want to negate them.


55 posted on 09/14/2005 7:45:01 AM PDT by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Senator Goldwater

Boston is like a Cest pool that slug politicians come crawling out of to terrorize the rest of the country... LOL!


56 posted on 09/14/2005 7:45:40 AM PDT by Sprite518
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: smonk
Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou

Dirka Dirka Mohammed Jihad

57 posted on 09/14/2005 7:45:59 AM PDT by Alouette (Militant Neocon Pundit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel
Liberals fail to realize there are some people you just cannot talk to

It's AMAZING that liberals think everything can be solved by discussions and talking. Try talking to a hard-core liberal and they won't listen to a thing you're trying to tell them, no matter how much sense it makes!

They expect lunatics and terrorists to listen to reason when they don't want to hear anything that goes against what's already engrained in their beady little minds!

Liberal: La, la, laaaa... I can't heaarrrr you!!

58 posted on 09/14/2005 7:46:31 AM PDT by RogerWilko
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: LurkedLongEnough

"..the global response to Al Qaeda requires understanding the enemy..."

True. But that's eomthing the Boston Globe obviously fails to do.

As the President in that hokey movie "Indpendence Day" found out when he asked the alien what they wanted humans to do, its response was "Die".

The same can be said for Al Quaida. Its goal is the destruction of the west, western civilization, and everything we worked 2,000 years to accomplish.

And NOTHING will deter them - except hot lead and cold steel and, perhaps, hemp ropes and tall gallows.

DELENDA EST SYRIA


59 posted on 09/14/2005 7:46:56 AM PDT by ZULU (Fear the government which fears your guns. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lady lawyer
This is not "assymetrical warfare."

On the contrary, that is PRECISELY what this is. With minimal materiel and infrastructure, the raggies managed to murder 3,000 of the "enemy" with negligible losses to themselves. Tactically, 9/11 was an overwhelming success for the savages.

The point people miss is that if "warfare" in the raggie world consists of murdering civilians, then they have no high ground when the US murders THEIR civilians. If the Trade Center is a military target, then so are mosques. If commuter buses and trains are fair game, then so are madrassas, "safe houses," and cars driving along Iraqi highways. And if civilians are the enemy, then it doesn't matter if the animals at Guantanamo were wearing uniforms or not; they are still prisoners of war.

The raggies defined the rules of engagement. They can't very well balk when we engage them under those same rules.

60 posted on 09/14/2005 7:47:25 AM PDT by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 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