But my comment relates to the idea that some people seem to have that they really care how our elections turn out and would change their tactics just to influence an election's outcome.
Well, maybe you need to do a bit more on terrorism and the strategy by which it wages war in order to achieve its results. Terrorism's primary goal is to accomplish political change and shape public opinion, both to create recognition for their cause, and to intimidate the citizenry in the target country.
Thus, in some form or another, EVERY attack is meant to influence the outcome of an election, or to undermine the very authority of the democratic government. In the case of Iraq, both of our governments are tied together as targets.
A prime example are the Madrid bombing attacks that cost Aznar the election and resulted in Spanish troops pulling out of Iraq.
asianews.it
And the Washington Post, hardly a fountain of Bush Adminstration propaganda, reported last month that Abu Ayyub Al Masri wanted redoubled attacks for the purpose of influencing the elections:
After American warplanes killed al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June, his successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, called on followers to concentrate attacks on U.S. troops and Shiite militiamen, soldiers and police. In September, Masri urged every insurgent in Iraq to kill at least one American within 15 days.
The Egyptian-born Masri wanted redoubled attacks "to have a great effect on the American elections," said Abu Islam al-Arabi, a local al-Qaeda leader reached by telephone Thursday in Anbar province.
I'm not sure where they found this exact quote (still trying to find a copy of Al Masri's Sept message), but it may be an analysis of why he has asked for redoubled efforts to attack Americans. He certainly wants the release of the "Blind Sheik", Abd Al-Rahman, who was directly implicated in the 1993 WTC bombings and is currently "rotting" in a US prison.
Here are a few more links to review, if you doubt the political considerations for Al Masri's directed attacks.
blog.rastvor.net
jamestown.org
Bottom line, if you don't believe that terrorist attacks have a political agenda, then you simply don't understand the nature of terrorism.
Hawk |
