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The Boston Globe counsels surrender and appeasement in the face of the global jihad. Note also that the Tiny-Minority-of-Extremists talk is out the window: instead, we now hear that Al Qaeda's "struggle enjoys the rear-guard sympathy of large numbers of Muslims." The Globe can point that out in the context of appeasement and defeat, but woe to anyone who points it out in the context of framing the conflict properly. (Thanks to all who sent this in.)
AS THE WAR between the United States and Al Qaeda enters its fifth year, the nature of the armed, transnational Islamist group's campaign remains misunderstood. With the conflict viewed largely as an open-and-shut matter of good versus evil, nonmilitary engagement with Al Qaeda is depicted as improper and unnecessary.Yet developing a strategy for the next phase of the global response to Al Qaeda requires understanding the enemy -- something Western analysts have systematically failed to do. Sept. 11 was not an unprovoked, gratuitous act. It was a military operation researched and planned since at least 1996 and conducted by a trained commando in the context of a war that had twice been declared officially and publicly. The operation targeted two military locations and a civilian facility regarded as the symbol of US economic and financial power. The assault was the culmination of a larger campaign, which forecast impact, planned for the enemy's reaction, and was designed to gain the tactical upper hand....
How can the war be brought to an end? Neither side can defeat the other. The United States will not be able to overpower a diffuse, ever-mutating, organized international militancy movement, whose struggle enjoys the rear-guard sympathy of large numbers of Muslims. Likewise, Al Qaeda can score tactical victories on the United States and its allies, but it cannot rout the world's sole superpower.
Though dismissed widely, the best strategy for the United States may well be to acknowledge and address the collective reasons in which Al Qaeda anchors its acts of force. Al Qaeda has been true to its word in announcing and implementing its strategy for over a decade. It is likely to be true to its word in the future and cease hostilities against the United States, and indeed bring an end to the war it declared in 1996 and in 1998, in return for some degree of satisfaction regarding its grievances. In 2002, bin Laden declared: ''Whether America escalates or deescalates this conflict, we will reply in kind."
Posted by Robert at September 15, 2005 7:47 AM
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In the wake of the Beslan massacre President Putin barked a sarcastic remark to the press about a suggestion for the United States to sit down with bin Laden for tea to discuss their differences. I rather prefer the American naval hero Stephan Decater's report to the Navy Secretary that he had concluded negotiations of a new treaty with the Algerians in 1816 that was "dictated at the mouths of our cannons".
Posted by: Hulegu Khan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 15, 2005 9:04 AM
Sure.
Send Jimmy Carter and Edward Kennedy to do the talking.
at September 15, 2005 9:08 AM
This is surprising exactly how? The Boston Globe's parent is the New York Times. They've been counseling surrender since time immemorial.
Posted by: MJ at September 15, 2005 9:10 AM
And both are giving a poor return on investment (ROI).
It is possible they might close.
at September 15, 2005 9:21 AM
"Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou".
Could that be an Islamic name?
Does that shed some light?
Posted by: spect8or at September 15, 2005 9:52 AM
Osama Bin Laden: "true to his word"
mmmmm.
I had to read this several times to take in the enormity of the Dhimmitude here.
Yes, lets surrender all Western Foreign Policy decisions to a Saudi cave dwelling mass murderer.
"Niether side can defeat the other" - what a treasonous, cowardly, self defeating, wimped out to the max kind of appeasement is that?
We in the West should never talk to, negotiate or debate with mass murderers in suicide death cults.
We should hunt them down to the ends of the earth & all our resources & terminate them, with extreme prejudice.
That is the only Al Qaeda strategy worth pursuing or talking about.
I look forward to the day that GW Bush & Princess Blair actually engage that policy.
Posted by: albion at September 15, 2005 10:11 AM
albion:
I'll try to catch you on this thread but if I miss you I'll try again later.
I'd like to have your email address on our private-member JW/DW contact list. No address is exchanged without prior authorization, and only to a specific party that has requested it, if approved. If you'd agree, please send your email address along with your screenname to susan_b356@yahoo.com. I keep the backup copy of the list.
CGW
Posted by: CGW at September 15, 2005 12:06 PM
give alqaeda "some degree of satisfaction.."
like ,say, ummm..pull the plug on Israel..mmm
i'm sure they would find that satisfying..
DESTROY!
Posted by: otterfisher at September 15, 2005 12:44 PM
Al-Qaeda operates on the literal terms of the Qur'an. This (terrorist) organization's actions and decisions are based on the assumption that the rest of the world must yield to the commands of the Quran immediately. There is nothing to be negotiated. al-qaeda works like a one way street--if you're not going their way, then you're going the wrong way. Period.
Therefore no real dialogue with al-Qaeda is possible. And certain to be a waste of time. They won't change. They CAN'T IN FACT CHANGE. They are convinced that the Quran must be imposed on the remaider of humanity at all costs. Thatis why they even exist.
The only thing al-Qaeda will discus is HOW this will be accomplished and WHEN.
at September 15, 2005 8:28 PM
AIM Report:
Media Are Blind to Islamic Threat - September 8, 2005
The hour is late, but America can fight and yet win this war against Islamic terrorism. The first step is to tell the truth about the Koran and its impact on the present jihad. Send this page to a friend
http://www.aim.org/aim_report/3996_0_4_0_C/
at September 16, 2005 1:20 AM
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