lowing wrote:
spastic bullet wrote:
lowing wrote:
I see what you are saying now. Now my question becomes if we ALLLLLLLLLL know how "ruthless" these groups are, why are you not will to stand toe to toe with them and defend yourselves against them?
Because
that offer is not on the table. It's all spectacle (e.g. 9/11, beheading videos) and hit-and-run (e.g. Iraq insurgency). They hope that by provoking the US and others, they can turn their dream of a big holy war into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
They need the support of ordinary Muslims and -- because extremists are such hateful bigots -- the only way they can get that is by tricking the US into overreacting. They then say to other Muslims
"look what evil the infidels are capable of -- how can you be so spineless in the face of such evil?" Sound familiar?
lowing wrote:
I admit to taking the position of 2 choices, fight or succumb. IF you have a third option I am all ears. Please don't come back with diplomacy, since negotiating with terrorists is not an option ( of which I agree)
The third option is viewing the problem from outside the box. I know it's not as teh seksy as "fight or succumb", but unless your ultimate goal is to wipe out Islam
, we have to seriously start thinking about how we're going to discredit al Qaeda in the eyes of the Muslim world.
I can agree with that...........but...........................in the mean time,
are you saying we should just sit back and take more lumps like we did during the Clinton administration?? Or.......do we fight back??
No, that's the
false dilemma rearing its pretty head again. What I
am saying is we need to
fight back smarter, rather than in a way that plays right into their hands. Remember the
post about Zarqawi's alleged planning document? It was presented in these forums as proof the insurgency is faltering, but if you read through the document itself, you find something quite interesting:
Zarqawi allegedly wrote:
The question remains, how to draw the Americans into fighting a war against Iran?
It is not known whether American is serious in its animosity towards Iraq [sic?], because of the big support Iran is offering to America in its war in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
Hence, it is necessary first to exaggerate the Iranian danger and to convince America and the west in general, of the real danger coming from Iran, and this would be done by the following:
1. By disseminating threatening messages against American interests and the American people and attribute them to a Shiite Iranian side.
2. By executing operations of kidnapping hostages and implicating the Shiite Iranian side.
3. By advertising that Iran has chemical and nuclear weapons and is threatening the west with these weapons.
4. By executing exploding operations in the west and accusing Iran by planting Iranian Shiite fingerprints and evidence.
5. By declaring the existence of a relationship between Iran and terrorist groups (as termed by the Americans).
6. By disseminating bogus messages about confessions showing that Iran is in possession of weapons of mass destruction or that there are attempts by the Iranian intelligence to undertake terrorist operations in America and the west and against western interests.
Whether the document is authentic or not, it is an uncontroversial fact this has been their plan all along -- to draw us into conflicts that are
very difficult to win without alienating broad cross-sections of the Muslim world. Remember, this is the only way they can rally support among ordinary Muslims.
The problem, as I see it, is that some countries' leadership are not acting in the interests of their general population. They instead view the situation as an opportunity to enrich their financiers, all the while securing support in exactly the same manner as al Qaeda -- by accusing their political opponents of cowardice in the face of an uncompromising enemy.
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." -- Hermann Goering