It May Well Take 20 Years. But Al-Qaeda's Days Are Numbered

Five years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden waits in vain for a Muslim 'awakening'. The lure of the West is just too powerful a force

Tomorrow will mark five years since the attacks of 11 September 2001. If one generation knew where they were when mankind first walked on the moon, another knows where they were when the Twin Towers crumbled. And they know where they were when coalition troops first entered Iraq. And when the bombs exploded in London a year ago. By the end of this decade, there is no doubt we will have other sad anniversaries of other terrible events to be mindful of. There is a sense that history, far from ending, is accelerating. That the centre cannot hold. That the individual counts for nothing.

Certainly, Osama bin Laden, egoist though he may be, is convinced that his 'life or death does not matter'. This is because, as he said a few months after the 11 September attacks: 'The awakening has started.' An al-Qaeda video said much the same thing in his umpteenth similar statement last week. Times have changed but the song remains the same.

Bin Laden was in one sense right. His life or death doesn't matter, but not for the reasons he thought. He meant that the attacks of 9/11, the culmination of a series of attempts which began in the late 1990s to use spectacular violence to spark a general uprising of the world's Muslims, had been largely successful. And, he felt in December 2001, his work was more or less over.

Five years later, it is clear that, in this, he was wrong. Yes, there is increasing radicalisation.

Yes, "They" say we are winning. The reasons why are the difference, they actually believe that the society that incubates this terror is actually friendly and wants to coexist with us more than not. He is basing his observations on an isolated conversation with a Pakistani Tribal Chief and what he "feels".

I happen to be of the opinion that to defeat an enemy with the mindset of Radical Islam, you have to beat them to a bloody pulp and keep beating them until they are dead. Yes, we can win the hearts and minds after that, when they see that radicalism is not the way of Allah.

The fact that Abu Ghraib prison, where Saddam's henchmen tortured and maimed at will, is now known for American abuse of prisoners is both a disgrace and a tragedy.

I agree with that statement, although for the exact opposite reason that the author intended. The abuse at Abu Ghraib was minimal, uncovered and exposed by the U.S. military, and its perpetrators arrested long before the world media fixed on it as a useful whipping horse. Were it not revealed by the U.S. military no one would ever have heard of it. That it is used as a constant anti-U.S. refrain is indeed a disgrace and a tragedy - it disgraces the commentariat who exploit it and is a tragedy for those who suffered real torture and death at the hands of Saddam. They, and not the Americans, are now the proprietors of Abu Ghraib. We shall see if they are held to the standards to which the U.S. was held and against which, unsurprisingly, constantly found wanting.

The information gathered at Guantanamo Bay can in no way be equal in strategic value to the damage done to the image of America around the world.

On the contrary - the "image" of America has been persistently trashed by the same people who gleefully do so now, a process that has been ongoing for the last half century. Nothing there has changed. What may have been garnered from the presumably unhappy residents of Gitmo, however, is almost certainly more valuable than any image issues over which the U.S. cannot possibly win anyway. If the international press is concerned that the U.S. is less impressed with its lockstep condemnation than it has been in the past, it isn't the U.S. who is to blame.

Well, duh, why WOULD they need Al-Cruda in 20 years for heavens sake. By then Comrade Hitlery will have been president, as well as her appointed successors, and there will be a mosque on every corner, every school child will be automatically indoctrinated by the government indoctrination schools, Christians will be in hiding and the 'game' will be over. The Al-Cruda guys will be living fat and happy on their gas station busineses and they'll all be at least 40 years old. Well, let's hope not, but...

Bin Laden's unintended legacy is this...

Afghanistan was freed from the tyranny of the Taliban and has adopted Democracy.
Iraq was freed from the tyranny of Saddam and has adopted Democracy.
The suicide bomb factories in Iraq that armed the Palestinians were closed.
Saddam's funding of Palestinian terrorists was shut down.
Al Quada has been nearly destroyed.
Dissenters within Iran grow braver.
Muslims throughout the region are discussing democracy more.
Syria and Iran have been further isolated.
Hezbullah was criticized by other Muslims for attacking Israel.
Libya gave up it's WMD programs and renounced terrorism.
The Palestinians had elections, but elected terrorists and lost both funding and world support, and are quickly losing economic viability.
Muslims are viewed with suspicion worldwide.
More Muslims are being vocal against the Islamic faith and it's practices.

Genesis 50:20 - But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

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