Shortly after 9/11, I was talking to a Maronite priest friend who was helping me with Arabic pronunciation, and we got to talking about bin Laden. My priest friend was very worried about the danger posed by bin Laden–and, indeed, he was and is a very dangerous man who needs to be dealt with as swiftly as possible. But I pointed out that with the new U.S. War Against Terror, it would make it much, much harder for bin Laden to operate. He could no longer come out into the open without making himself a target, and it’s hard to raise support and coordinate major attacks if you’re deep in hiding. My priest friend saw the point and was somewhat relieved by this line of thinking.
Now we have reports that bin Laden has been forced so deep into hiding that he now is only a figurehead for al-Qaeda.
The same story goes on to report:
As many as 70 percent of al-Qaeda’s leadership have been captured or killed as a result of the US-led war on terror launched in the aftermath of September 11 in Afghanistan (news – web sites) and other parts of the world, according to US intelligence officials.
More than 3,400 of the group’s lower-ranking operatives and supporters have also been detained or otherwise neutralized, these officials insist.
But a report on worldwide terrorism patterns released by the State Department Thursday acknowledged that al-Qaeda probably still has several thousand members and associates it can rely on.
Unfortunately, this news won’t matter to the press. If any terrorist attack occurs ever again on American soil, even if it is just one, it will be blamed on Bush for provoking it with his WoT, or his failure to carry out the WoT successfully.
What they don’t understand is that the WoT will have probably prevented 10 similar attacks that we will never know about (because Al-Qaida has been dealt a severe blow to it’s ability organize and carry out terrorist attacks).
But for the press, one attack is proof of the stupidity of the WoT…and one casualty is a war hopelessly lost/mismanaged/Vietnam-style quagmire.
Maronites, Chaldeans and other middle-eastern Christians will prove invaluable in helping us understand Arab/Islamic culture.
How is the 9/11 situation any different than what has been going on in the middle east since 1946?
The real issue is palestine and the right of the the palestinians to exist. We must treat the root of the problem not the symptoms.
Consider a neighborhood where the children are not given a education, freedom or the ability to
earn a decent wage. The undereducated will become roving street gangs.
In similiar manner, this is the story today.
Basic human repect could end the cycle of violence. It is all so very fundamental.
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