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Originally Posted by Pierre
And the spanish people have reacted to this by voting out the government who in their opinion made them a target to al-qaeda.
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More to the point, they voted out the Government who a) ignored the opinions of the vast majority of the people (90 percent according to some polls!! see
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe...prj.irq.spain/ )
by getting into the war in the first place
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However, what people must understand is that any western government is a target of al-qaeda. Any non-islamic regime is a target of al-qaeda.
Which is why they must be stopped. We can't bury our heads in the sand and believe that if we didn't side with america we wouldn't be a target, because that is simply not the case.
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But *how* should they be stopped? Declaring war on Saddam Hussein did nothing to attack Al Qaeda, instead it just made matters worse because they saw it as an implicit American "Imperialist" strategy to foist *their* style of government on the Middle East.
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The world needs to wake up to the fact that this particular brand of islamic fundamentalism and fanaticism can not be negotiated with.
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Or, rather, it cannot be negotiated with by *our* methods. However *if* instead of trying to stamp it out of existance by force, we allowed Islamic countries to run their own affairs, the fanatics would (as is happening in Iran now) slowly lose their power bases.
Trying to force change just results in people digging their heels in and gives the extremists *more* recruits and ammunition.
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They understand only way to achieve their objectives and that is through terror and violence, and as much as it may repulse some people that is the way we may have to respond ourselves to protect our way of life.
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Ah, so to defeat the enemy, you must *become* that which you despise. A self-defeating strategy if ever there was one...
An interesting publication, but let's just look at a some of what it says...
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The main mission for which the Military Organization is
responsible is: The overthrow of the godless regimes and their replacement with an Islamic regime.
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As opposed to, say, the West wanting to overthrow Islamic regimes and replace them with Western Democracies...??
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Other missions consist of the following:
1. Gathering information about the enemy, the land, the installations, and the neighbors.
2. Kidnaping enemy personnel, documents, secrets, and arms.
3. Assassinating enemy personnel as well as foreign tourists.
4. Freeing the brothers who are captured by the enemy.
5. Spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy.
6. Blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin; not a vital target.
7. Blasting and destroying the embassies and attacking vital economic centers.
8. Blasting and destroying bridges leading into and out of the cities.
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But apart from "foreign tourists" in point three and the whole of point six, is there anything in that statement that *WE* have *NOT* done??
Looking at this from a purely objective, as opposed to emotive, point of view, their strategy is very similar to ours. Yes, their tactics are different, because they don't have our armies and weapons, but what they want to achieve is not that different from what our leaders want.
However, just as they will not succeed in their goals by these methods, IMO neither will we. To try to force change for political reasons and political gains is short-sighted and foolish, no matter *which* side you are on.