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Is Al Qaeda Finished? No, Really

James Fallows no doubt wishes his Atlantic piece (you can't read it here--subscription required) on why it's time to declare the war on terror over (because we won) had run, oh, just about any other time. But timing isn't everything, and Fallows--one of a vanishingly small number of big-name journalists who actually bother to go out and talk to people--impressively lays out what most people who follow Al Qaeda have been trying to say for some time (and are still saying in the wake of the London plot): Al Qaeda as the group that masterminded 9/11 hasn't existed since the war in Afghanistan, since its top operatives were killed or driven into hiding, since it lost the ability to freely communicate via cell phones or the Internet, to transfer money over international financial networks, etc. What exists now, as Peter Bergen's Mother Jones story on "The Wrong War" noted some time ago, is a loose confederation nominally inspired by the occasional Osama or al-Zawahiri tape, but mostly proceeding on the Environmental Liberation Front model (no overall comparison intended) of like-minded cells that claim affiliation with an ideological brand when it suits them. The problem is that thanks to current U.S. policy in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, that unstructured network is growing larger and stronger every day, even in spite of its own mistakes (such as killing large numbers of Muslim civilians). Which is why Fallows is right: It's time to stop. Not stop going after terrorists, which is what the Brits were doing in investigating bomb plotters, but stop the "war" (meaning what, exactly?) on "terror" (ditto), and move on to what might actually make the world more secure.

Posted by Monika Bauerlein on 08/12/06 at 11:16 PM | E-mail | Print | Digg | de.licio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Yahoo! MyWeb | StumbleUpon | Netscape | Google |



Comments

Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rummy/Rice/Gonzales will never stop the war on terror because it is what keeps the Repugs in power. They use it to threaten and intimidate the American voter who fears the terrorists so much.

It energizes that segment of the American population that likes to deal with the rest of the world by killing and bombing. This is most exemplified by the red neck voters especially those in the KKK who feared African-Americans.

Those of us who still prefer to use our brains rather than let the beer do our thinking will remember that the Repugs said they want/expect to be in power for a generation (thats 20yrs for you red necks) and they are not going to give up their position of total control over all three branchs of gov that they now hold. So they will do anything and everything to stay in power and that means fear mongering, hate mongering and war mongering. They will allow terrorist plots and activities or the lies about them to be constantly before the American voter.

Thanks to Rumsfeld bin Laden is still free to roam at will. Remember Rummy refused to send troops to Afghanistan when bin Laden was cornered and that allowed him to escape.

Posted by: Bob t on 08/13/06 at 12:44 PM

Well, I think the deep dark secret that keeps this war going (besides it's profitability) is the permanent bases we've built there under the cover of saving Iraq and then-- allegedly--turning it over to the Iraqis. I mean, what do you do with a military base? I suppose strip it clean and bomb the buildings and runways on the way out, but still, the neo-cons have been jonesing for these bases since Grandpappa Kissinger dreamed the whole scheme up in 1973.

Posted by: teri on 08/14/06 at 5:42 PM

Did we ever find any Weaps of Mass Destruction over there in Iraqi land of what? Have heard a mix of yes,no, unsure out here. What do you know on this?

Posted by: Bike on 08/14/06 at 6:38 PM

Bike, no wmds. Lots of stretching really, really hard to try to make a few things found into possible wmds, but none atually found, not north, south, east or west of Baghdad...

Posted by: Wendy on 08/15/06 at 7:49 AM

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