“What we shouldn’t do is play into al Qaeda’s hands by exaggerating the extent and nature of the threat they present globally.” Fine. There are many other jihad groups. Shouldn’t the jihad and Islamic supremacism, rather than a narrow focus on Al-Qaeda, take its place beside global warming and the flu pandemic? If we turn away from the jihadists, will they stop fighting us, while we tend to flu vaccines?
“U.K. Official: Don’t Exaggerate Terror,” from CBS News (thanks to all who sent this in):
(CBS/AP) Britain is in danger of exaggerating the threat from al Qaeda, the former top adviser on terrorism to Prime Minister Gordon Brown was quoted Sunday as saying.
Richard Mottram, who retired last month from his post as an adviser on intelligence and security, said focusing too tightly on the terrorist movement risked underplaying other important threats such as climate change or a possible flu pandemic, a British newspaper reported.
“What we shouldn’t do is play into al Qaeda’s hands by exaggerating the extent and nature of the threat they present globally,” Mottram was quoted by The Observer newspaper as saying.
“This focus is not smart when it comes to dealing with people who are trying to make us think that they are the greatest threat,” he told the paper.
Among the significant problems Mottram identified deserving of equally serious attention: global warming; flu pandemics; the emergence of rogue states; globalization and its impact on power balances; global poverty and its impact on population movement; energy security; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and organized crime.