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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (126501)	3/18/2004 2:21:21 PM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Pakistanis May Be Near al-Qaida's No. 2 4 minutes ago Add World - AP to My Yahoo! story.news.yahoo.com By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani troops believe they have surrounded al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri in an operation near the Afghan border, three senior Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

To: slacker711 who wrote (126501)	3/18/2004 2:45:57 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Certainly, Al Queda would like to re-conquer Spain for the True Faith. But Al Queda will be unable to operate, unless they have a mass of public sympathy. Think of Mao's analogy of the fish in the sea. Read the latest Pew poll. Once again, Bin Laden is far more popular than Bush, among the world's 1.2B Muslims, and the trend is not going our way. We are seeing the same thing in Iraq. Probably, less than 5% of the Iraqi population is willing to take any violent action, against our soldiers. But the other 95% of the population are unwilling to turn the guerrillas in, unwilling to lift a finger to help us. And that's all the guerrillas need, to win. First they push us out of the cities, into besieged fortresses (already done), then they push us entirely out of the country (that's next, whether Bush or Kerry is President in 2005). Dry up public support for the guerrillas. That is the only way to cut off their funding, recruits, Safe Havens. That's the only way to defeat them. Our actions, since 9/11, have been entirely counter-productive. We have managed to increase public support and sympathy for the guerrillas. This isn't my opinion. This is fact. Go read the Pew polls. My proposals do not depend on people becoming angels. My proposals only depend on people stopping self-destructive behavior, and acting in their own enlightened long-term self-interest.