Arming Outer Space

On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 16:02:34 +0000 (UTC),
(Eric Chomko) wrote:

: Which is all the more striking when you consider that the *same* leaders
: did exactly the *right* thing, resulting in a major *victory*, on the
: external front: attacking Al-Queda's sanctuary in Afghanistan, and its
: despicable government, and stomping them flat.

Aren't they rallying again?

Yes, but only to defend themselves, instead of bringing their war to
America again. Today, the great majority of Americans they are
attacking are those who are armed and capable of shooting back, and al
Qaeda is finding them to be a much more difficult target.

And is bin Laden dead or not?

Almost as good... he's been rendered powerless.

Brian

(Eric Chomko) writes:

Henry Spencer ) wrote:

: Actually, the defeat came just afterward. The attacks themselves could
: not reasonably have been prevented, and *by the standards of warfare* took
: a relatively small toll. The defeat was the massive over-reaction of
: hysterical, poorly-thought-out, useless, intrusive "security" measures --
: many of which we're still living with -- which was *exactly* what the
: terrorists wanted. The goal of terrorism is not to kill people, but to
: disrupt their society. The West in general and the US in particular did
: (and are still doing) the terrorists' work for them, due to poor leadership.

: Which is all the more striking when you consider that the *same* leaders
: did exactly the *right* thing, resulting in a major *victory*, on the
: external front: attacking Al-Queda's sanctuary in Afghanistan, and its
: despicable government, and stomping them flat.

Aren't they rallying again? And is bin Laden dead or not?


Bin Laden has probably been dead for almost two years now, but that
has never really mattered outside of the propaganda. Unfortunately,
the only successful American war propaganda in recent decades has been
that of personal demonization, and Bin Laden is the Official Demon of
the war on terror. So we have to at least officially pretend he is
still alive until we're finished with the war as a whole.

Al Qaeda is "rallying" in the loosest sense of the word at least, which
is why it makes little real difference whether OBL himself is alive or
dead. But there is no evidence of any capability to conduct operations
outside of the Islamic world, nor to conduct sustained, focused offensives
even in their areas of popular support. These are the capabilities that
made AQ seriously dangerous, that made for 9/11.

What there are, are spasms of activity wherever some local Islamic
fundamentalist terror movement can be incited to rally for a time behind
the Al Qaeda banner. Overtly, at least, these spasms seem to burn out
fairly quickly. But there's room for legitimate debate about whether
they represent the death throes of the old Al Qaeda or the first twitches
of something rising, Frankenstein-like, from reassembled bits of various
shattered terrorist networks.

Either way, it's not safe until the corpse stops twitching. We need to
help this process along.


I do, however, disagree with Henry's claim that the idiot "security"
measures implemented post-9/11 represent any sort of victory for the
terrorists. That ascribes to Al Qaeda far more of an interest in
American domestic affairs than is warranted by any evidence or logic
I have seen. Pointless reductions in the freedom of the American
people, yes, but "They Hate Our Freedom!" has never been more than
another form of mindless propaganda.

They *don't care* about our freedom. What they hate, is Saudi decadence.


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