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

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (135673)	6/4/2004 8:47:53 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

<If you consider the likely goals of OBL as being political rather than personal, Al Qaeda never blew it by attacking on 9/11. We are out of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government is getting shaky, the world views America in much the same way OBL viewed it, America is weaker than its been in a decade, the vision of democracy is badly tainted, much of the Muslim world feels religiously threatened and OBL is a great hero with substantial popular support in many parts of the world.> Cynd, don't forget, the USA has also got rid of Saddam which is a good thing as far as Osama is concerned. Of course Osama also said that Arabs and Moslems should defend Iraq, though I'm not sure if he was so keen to defend Saddam. I think that's what he said, but maybe I have that wrong. I don't think that the USA is weaker than it has been. I'd say it's at all time strength. Also, democracy hasn't got a bad name. The USA neither invented democracy nor is democracy dependent on the USA to keep it alive as a political idea. Pedants say the USA isn't a democracy, it's a republic [which seems silly to me]. Overall, things seem to be going not too badly in Iraq and elsewhere. Not as well as they could have, but not as bad as they might have either. When I consider possible responses by the USA to the 911 attacks, I think the world has got off very lightly and things have gone remarkably well. The USA hasn't had further attacks, a billion Moslems should be grateful that the USA is not as barbaric as the Islamic Jihad head-hacking thugs, the world's economy is zooming along, the total number of dead is only in the 10s of thousands [Afghanistan and Iraq combined]. If this is WWIII, it's a much less destructive war than the previous world wars [though it's a long way from over yet and nuclear weapon attacks are still part of the possible outcomes]. Mqurice