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| Iraq |
| Al-Qaeda defeat coincides with political season |
| 2008-06-06 |
| Ali Ettefagh I am still trying to figure out the nature of the conflict or war and the basic fight or argument of al-Qaeda versus the United States. I wonder whether it all can be framed in the common perspectives of the rest of the world. It seems convenient that the apparent rise and defeat of al-Qaeda, a group with no pre-invasion presence in Iraq, is so timely with the American election season! What about the war on terror? Is that one over too, or will be put on the same backburner – where the war on drugs (for example) sits? Are these comments just telegraphic codes for election slogans for the next five months? Al-Qaeda was, and is, a mere loose affiliation of criminal gangs with a violent cause, a hodgepodge of hate, and a drive for spectacular and showy crimes. This gang started its existence with a goal of overthrowing the Saudi regime. They could have not imagined a better publicist than the American government to elevate their criminal enterprise to a larger-than-life monster, supposedly capable of ending the ways of life in democracies and the end of the world as we know it. The leader of the gang was on television at all hours as the riddle occupied the airwaves. The trees stopped everything to see the jungle. It soon became an overblown enigma as politicians found the urgent need to attack a sovereign Iraq, if only to set up a ruse and an arena to throw down the gauntlet against “The Gang.” An asymmetric fight ensued for several years and a modern, powerful army with the latest technologies spent more than $2 billion a week to fend off the challenge of an ill-trained gang of criminals. A madman and a handful of cronies were promoted to the living version of all fictional villains in James Bond films and Batman cartoons. A few trillion dollars were spent to chase villains in Afghan or Pakistani caves; alas, the elusive targets still remain at large. (So, at the end of several years, should the stakeholders know how many caves are in that mountain range and the rough budget on a per cave basis?) In the real world, however, al-Qaeda has gone down an unmistakable, self-defeating path. The subscriber base of this criminal gang simply did not grow with the scale of publicity afforded to it. Out of more than a billion Muslims, only a few thousand – and mostly disenchanted, marginalised and unemployed – youth ever bought the story of raw, aimless violence. The absurd “Jihad” recruiting slogan was a bust for al-Qaeda; alas, it proved to be a political bonanza for another lot of extremists and an opportunity to hijack mindset. It proved as a windfall chance to paint a simplistic, surreal picture of all Muslims around the world. News leaks were a-plenty about the “big bust” of al-Qaeda when a few confused and marginalised Pakistani immigrants were caught with some radical readings in, say, a suburb of a British town. Amateur criminals were mistaken for master politicians and a faction that was purportedly, if not laughably, a more potent band than the sum of evil communism, nasty fascism and The Crusades. In turn, the fight warranted the suspension of laws, respect for privacy and ban of investment by Arab sovereign funds. All were ordered to recall Ceausescu’s Romania and to report suspicious activity – if only for the cause! Panic now, think much later! Given the end of the political cycle in America and the inflation-laced anti-war sentiments, it is not surprising to see early declarations of a deceptive victory over a misunderstood hoax mislabeled as a political movement. Al-Qaeda was, and remains, a criminal enterprise, largely funded with drug money from Afghanistan. It is likely to resurface with a new name and illicit deeds. But a sharp focus must lead logic from mistaking crime with political deeds. Otherwise it will prove to be self-defeating indeed and a lavish waste of credibility beyond repair. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 If the defeat coincides with the political season it's because the Surge was designed to kill the insurgency before a new President came into power so that any pull-out would be less frantic. Sometimes things work that way. In this case the surge succeeded giving McCain at least a bit of a chance. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-06-06 16:01 |
| #6 Only someone named Ali would try this hard to convince us that Al-Queer is no threat at all the Americans and that the boogey-man of Islamic Extremism doesn't exist. Nice try shitbag, go back to dearborn and yodel from a minaret if you like, but I think we've killed a couple hundred thousand people who would gladly end their own life to take a few of us with them if they could. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-06-06 09:31 |
| #5 Author of article confuses Al Q with Taliban. The latter gets money primarily from drug money. The former has money from many sources, including potemkin businesses which work for the security services of Syria and Saudi Arabia among others, blackmail/extortion from individuals and a small percentage of drug money. |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-06-06 08:46 |
| #4 It's hardly news that AQ like all terrorist organizations is also a criminal enterprise. How else are they going to get funds? Launch an IPO. What makes them terrorists is criminality is merely a means to an end (killing and overthrow of the state) unlike your run of the mill crims. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-06-06 06:39 |
| #3 google the author... My friend Ali Ettefagh, an Iranian businessman, sends me outrageous jokes and parodies he finds on the Internet. In recent weeks, as the U.S.-Iranian nuclear showdown escalated, he was sending pictures of luxury apartments and shopping centers in Iran, and investment plans for developing the Iranian economy -- so that I wouldn't think Iran's firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was the country's only voice. I asked him this week what Iranians thought about meeting with the Great Satan. It was "the talk of the town," he said. Iranians were tired of the "war of nerves," he explained, "and the uncertainty of whether they will bombed by this weekend!" Americans would probably express similar sentiments. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-06-06 00:43 |
| #2 OOPSIES, forgot to add STAR-N-STRIPES OP-ED > ECONOMISTS FORESEE A VICIOUS CYCLE OF INFLATION IN THE US. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-06 00:38 |
| #1 Compare wid NEW REPUBLIC MAGZ > THE JIHADIST REVOLUTION AGZ BIN LADEN; + COUNTERRORISM BLOG > HOW TO MEASURE AL QAEDA'S "DEFEAT"? OTOH, also from TOPIX > TERRORISM AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: THE GREATEST THREAT TO US NATIONAL SECURITY {Mil Radicalists-Terrorists wid Nukes-WMDS], + AMERICAN CHRONICLE > THE [coming/looming]COLLAPSE OF US CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-06 00:36 |