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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SilentZ who wrote (161232)	2/16/2003 11:30:48 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573927

Just look at what you're saying up above. You are trying to have it both ways. I don't believe I am... why do you say that? I may have misunderstood what you said but you talk about Iraq and rogue states on the one hand and al Qaeda with its one-focus on the other hand as if they are separate. But then you suggest that its somewhat reasonable for Bush to tie the two together as two elements of the war on terrorism. That is actually what Bush has tried to do with not much success. While I believe its possible that al Qaeda and leaders of rogue states may hook up from time to time, I believe its a rare mainly because I think their differing ideologies keep them apart more than their common religion might keep them together. That's right. That's why I think its a waste of good money to go after Saddam. Al-Qaida's had Somalia, Sudan, and Afghanistan thus far. I If what you meant by me trying to have it both ways was to say that there's a link between Saddam and Al-Qaida, I wasn't referring to an Iraq/Qaida link, rather to the above states and Al-Qaida... Al-Qaida has a foothold in Iraq, but it's not due to a relationship between the Ba'aths and Al-Qaida, it's actually the Kurds and the Shiites and Al-Qaida... this, once again, worries me. That's right........and we are doing the same thing like we do over and over, and did with Saddam....the enemy of my enemy is my friend.....until we step out of denial and remember how evil and dangerous they are. The GOP is famous for doing that. There is a world of difference between a Saddam and an OBL. And its the difference that scares me. Interesting- please expound... Oh I've said this before on the thread and you alluded to it in one of your posts. OBL is a religious fundamentalist ideologue. I believe them to be the most dangerous of all humans on earth. With them, the end always justifies any means including suicide bombers and a plane plowing into the WTC. Death is the ultimate and expected sacrifice. The whole way al Qaeda is formatted fits the description of these groups or shades of these groups as they have appeared throughout human history: A person raised in wealth with strong religious roots decides to fight for the downtrodden, living in the shadows of the forest or Afghani caves and taking money from the rich to benefit the poor bla bla bla. The extent of the force they use depends on the economic and political conditions that surround them. In this case, the gap between rich and poor, and the power elite and the downtrodden in the Muslim world is extreme. Therefore, the use of force is also extreme and very malevolent. I believe the Muslim extremists like OBL and Hamas are using Israel and the US as examples of what can happen to the Muslim theocracies in the Middle East. Think about it.......often ideologues wreak their greatest vengeance against their own state. Such malevolence and destruction creates a great ambiavalence within the people they supposedly serve. On one hand, the oppressed people don't like their theocrat overlords while on the other hand, they are intimidated by the extremist behavior of the ideologues. What al Qaeda has come up with is a plan whereby you do your worse against a commonly hated enemy, and by hurting that enemy seriously, you then get your message across to the hated theocratic rulers while not alienating your constituency, the downtrodden poor. In fact, cleverly, both Hamas and OBL have done all they can to help the poor by building hospitals, roads and other infrastructure that service them. And to a limited extent its working.....Saudi Arabia and some of the other kingdoms are talking about democratizing portions of their governments. In any case, that's why I find OBL to be so disturbing......he is a cunning, well educated, duplicitous foe that so far, we have hurt only slightly. And as you said, the entire world is OBL's field of battle. Whereas Saddam is your run-of-the-mill, evil dictator whose bias is regional and who can be contained so long as he is watched closely. To spend billions chasing down Saddam when OBL/al Qaeda is lose and growing seems the height of idiocy to me. ted