Subj : Re: It seems not everyone
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : Ken McElhaney
Date : Wed Sep 07 2005 14:22:16

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape


TNW7Z7Z7Z12345 wrote:
> Ken McElhaney wrote:
>
> > So you are saying that our efforts in Afghanistan and around the world
> > have had NO effect on reducing terrorist attacks against the US? So,
> > Osama has waiting more than four years to attack us again
> > because....why?
>
> It's a little early to make this declaration.

Well, it is a factual statement.  It doesn't mean that there will not
be any attacks against us in the future (though I would think that if
Al Quaeda was really determined to carry one out, now would be the best
time to do it), but

>  With regard to attacks on
> US soil, it was nearly a decade between the first and second WTC
> attacks.

You are forgetting the 1998 attacks on US Embassys in Africa and the
2000 attack on the USS Cole, While not on American soil, they were
directed at Americans.

> And worldwide, terror attacks against other countries have        > increased.

Of course, as America directly takes on the terrorists, they shift
their targets to our allies, trying to break their will to fight them.


This war will take decades, no matter what.

> But more important, there is evidence that in future years there could
> be many more terrorists in the world:

Again, a rise in the number of terrorists in the early going (and we
are still VERY early into this conflict) is to be expected.  What
really matters is how much their capabilities are reduced and the
location & scale of their targets.  So far, they are pouring into Iraq
in a desparate attempt to stop the democratic process their, targeting
ministers (especially the Sunnis) and the like.

It certainly indicates that a successful democratic government in Iraq
run by the Shia and Kurds (who are apparently no friend of Osama Bin
Ladin) is something Al Qaeda desparately does not want to happen.

> ------------
>
> Excerpts from: "Study cites seeds of terror in Iraq: War radicalized
> most, probes find"  By Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, July 17, 2005
>
> "WASHINGTON -- New investigations by the Saudi Arabian government and
> an Israeli think tank -- both of which painstakingly analyzed the
> backgrounds and motivations of hundreds of foreigners entering Iraq to
> fight the United States -- have found that the vast majority of these
> foreign fighters are not former terrorists and became radicalized by
> the war itself."
>
> "...American intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of
> anonymity, and terrorism specialists paint a similar portrait of the
> suicide bombers wreaking havoc in Iraq: Prior to the Iraq war, they
> were not Islamic extremists seeking to attack the United States, as Al
> Qaeda did four years ago, but are part of a new generation of
> terrorists responding to calls to defend their fellow Muslims from
> ''crusaders" and ''infidels."
>
> ''The president is right that Iraq is a main front in the war on
> terrorism, but this is a front we created," said Peter Bergen, a
> terrorism specialist at the nonpartisan New America Foundation, a
> Washington think tank."
>
> ''...To say we must fight them in Baghdad so we don't have to fight
> them in Boston implies there is a finite number of people, and if you
> pen them up in Iraq you can kill them all," said Bergen. ''The truth is
> we increased the pool by what we did in Iraq."
>
> "Intelligence officials worry that some of ''Iraq alumni" will use the
> relationships they build on the battlefields of Iraq and return to
> their home countries as hardened Islamic terrorists."
>
> "The CIA's National Intelligence Council concluded in a report earlier
> this year that ''Iraq and other possible conflicts in the future could
> provide recruitment, training grounds, technical skills, and language
> proficiency for a new class of terrorists who are 'professionalized'
> and for whom political violence becomes an end in itself."

Again, I'm dubious of ANY editorial piece, no matter what the slant.
No doubt there are other editorial pieces which the authors shows
exactly the opposite.

> -----------
>
> I thought we did the right thing in Afghanistan, but it is way too early
> to tell whether Iraq has ultimately increased or decreased the problem.

Time will tell.   

Ken

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