I see their militants, basically, as old-fashioned revolutionaries, striving to capture political power.
Sure... nature abhors a vacuum, especially with regard to political and economic power.
All we're doing is "reshuffling" the deck and making it possible for new political and economic elements, who might have been previously repressed, to surface and take control.
The key is to ensure that no one particular politico-economic interest is able to gain dominance over any other.
The militants have nothing to offer the youth of the Muslim baby boom. Sure.. they will have their radicals, just as the US had its extremists (Weathermen, Black Panthers, SLA... etc).. But these elements have a very difficult time finding political traction when their economies are providing sufficient economic opportunity.
Political opportunity can come later...
What Al-Qaeda has achieved, quite unexpectedly, is a US committment to the region. They expected us to "cut and run", afraid of being embroiled in a Arab "Vietnam".
But they have underestimated their own power. They can radicalize a certain element in their societies, but the majority are looking to have a job, get married, and raise a family, not wage Jihad for the purpose of creating a repressive theocracy.
Hawk |
