Arab Illusions and Modern Terrorism

StrastegyPage ^ | November 5, 2004 | Unattributed

[quidnunc]

Al Qaeda is more of an idea than an organization, and this has been increasingly the case since September 11, 2001. Efforts to find al Qaeda connections to the Islamic terrorist violence in the last few years has been difficult, and often impossible. While the people behind many recent terror attacks got their start during the 1980s fighting Russians in Afghanistan, that’s not where the terrorism comes from. Few Arabs actually fought in Afghanistan, and only about 40 were actually killed. The Afghans did most of the fighting, and the Arabs came in with money, guns and eagerness to get involved. But the Afghans were not interested in taking these eager amateurs into action with them. So Arab volunteers in Afghanistan spent most of their time in Pakistan, posing for pictures and discussing world Islamic conquest. 

More Arabs died in Afghanistan in the year before September 11, 2001, than during the 1980s. Al Qaeda was a real organization in Afghanistan for a few years, until is was tossed out in late 2001. During that Golden Age, al Qaeda trained thousands of eager Islamic radicals, and got hundreds of them killed trying to keep the Taliban government in power. The Taliban never conquered all of Afghanistan, and in the last few years, their most reliable troops were a brigade of Arab (and other foreigners). These young men were trained, by al Qaeda, in the techniques of terrorism, and then asked to volunteer for a year or so of service in the 55th Infantry Brigade. Many did so, got some combat experience, and then went home to get the Islamic revolution going. But others were killed, or disillusioned at being asked to fight fellow Moslems. …

-snip-

[pypo]

Any organization that uses suicide as a military tactic has morons for leaders.

[ChristianDefender]

These are the kind of people who doesnt want to face the challenge of the modern civilization... they think that terrorism is an effective tool for survival... they just cant leave their ancient culture... Modern world is about working, studying, competition and more descent way of survival... it has no place for lazy individuals who still desires to live like those who were in the Dark Ages... these people deserve "dark" punishment... Throw them to the Lions Den...

[Thud]

Jim Dunnigan writes all unsigned columns appearing on Strategy Page. You can quote the whole thing provided you give the URL.

[SunkenCiv]

Uh-oh, here comes this Anees quote again. :')

Islam Faces a New Era
by Munawar A. Anees
1999, Civilization Magazine

Today's Muslim world is also being betrayed by a similar intellectual passivity regarding the Internet, the dynamo of the next Renaissance. While the French fight an uphill battle to prevent English from laying siege to the French-speaking world via the Net, none of the major Muslim languages plays a major role in this huge knowledge machine. Equally conspicuous is the absence of Muslim countries from one of history's greatest scientific endeavors, the Human Genome Project. Islam is not intrinsically opposed to ideals of justice, equality, and human dignity. It is folly to assume that technological sophistication or economic prosperity need weaken, or run counter to, religious belief. Meanwhile, at some distance from the ivory tower lies the grim reality of much of the Muslim world: poverty; mass illiteracy; want of basic hygiene and primary health facilities; lack of fundamental liberties of religion and speech; little protection from state persecution.

[ChristianDefender]

Bravo Amigo... INDEED.... and they are blaming the Americans...heck... don't blame Americans with your corruption and laziness...

[SunkenCiv]

:') Thanks. From P.J. O'Rourke's commentary in the June 2002 Automobile (pp 56-57, "If We're At War, Why Is Gasoline So Cheap":

[G]asoline, some recent price hikes notwithstanding... adjusted for inflation... was the lowest gasoline price, ever... [I]n 1970, we imported 22.7 per cent of our crude oil. Now we import 59 per cent, and almost a third comes from the Middle East... U.S. oil consumption went from more than 20 million barrels a day in August 2001 to about 18.8 million a day in January 2002... But the best thing we have going for us at the gas pump is the no-account, bone-idle, useless bums sitting on 65 per cent of the world's oil... [T]he total nonpetrochemical exports of the Arab world do not equal Finland's.

[rageaholic]

No matter how many excuses and reasons the arabs come up with, its clear to any clear thinking person that Islam itself is the problem. Islams is the biggest scam ever perpetrated in the history of mankind. Mohammad & pals invented it as a money & power grabbing organization.

Allah was just Mohammad's sock puppet, a "higher authority" which granted him legitimacy in every situation, granted permission for all his perverted sexual desires, and "payment" for his hoards, which would only accrue in death. How convenient.

Mohammad was the original terrorist, his religion reflects that today. I find it disturbing that Bush describes it as "a great religion" and "a religion of peace". Its nothing but a seditious terrorist organization hiding behind a fraudulent religious mantle.