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Ned
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of Aptos, CA
Oct 1999
time: 21:28
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On a positive note, it appears to take al Qa'ida nine to ten months to organize a major attack. We had a major attack on September 11 2001, another one last year in Bali, and now this one in Riyadh. We should not expect another attack like this for another nine months.
Also, I do not see how such an attack can lead to an al Qa'ida takeover of Saudi Arabia. They need to take out the royal family. I believe such an attack on the royal family was organized, but it was frustrated by the Saudi authorities.
However, this terrorist attack may be effective in driving foreigners out of Saudi Arabia, most particularly the Americans. Such would not be good for Saudi Arabia economically. Without foreigners present, al Qa'ida may also be weakened because their basic argument is that foreigners defile the soil, the holy soil of the land of Mecca in Medina..
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Andrew1999
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quote:
President Bush said Tuesday that those responsible for suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia that left dozens of people dead, including seven Americans, would "learn the meaning of American justice." |
We already know the meaning of American justice: blow up a bunch of stuff with cruise missiles, send a few Special Forces to run around, let everone important get away, get bored, leave.
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gsmoove23
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quote:
Originally posted by Ned
Almost, "wag the dog." Everything driven off of media coverage.
What we really need is for our politicians to understand the political capital value of a show trial. Then we would see some arrests, wouldn't we? |
Yeah, right now we only give secret military trials which are completely anti-climactic.
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Ned
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of Aptos, CA
Oct 1999
time: 21:28
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quote:
Originally posted by Oerdin
It's interesting to discuss the root causes of terrorism. Traditionally, it was thought that poverty and lack of education was the root cause but in the last few years we've found that people who were educated actually were MORE likely to become Ismalic militants then their less educated peers in many Arab countries. I recall hearing a figure that something around 2/3s of Saudi's have college degrees but 1/3 of them majored in Islamic studies!
To me this is astounding. That roughly 1/4 of the population is trained to be a mullah and is indoctrinated in Wahabism. That's some scary stuff. Mean while the BBC has an interesting article that just about every technical job in the kingdom of SA is filled by foreign (mostly western but some Asian) workers because Saudi schools just can't seem to turn out quality trained personnel in any of the fields which an industrial society needs (engineers, scientists, MBAs, economists, etc..). Shouldn't the Saudi government discourage (by not paying for a free education) students from going into economically worthless areas (such as religious studies) and encourage a few of it's young people into becoming the trained professionals who will lead them out of the backwards state they are currently in? |
We in the West have grown up in systems where the primary motivation for revolution was based upon Marxist class struggle concepts. Naturally, when we saw similar revolutions going on in Islamic countries, we assumed that their motivations were similar. But as you say, Islamic fundamentalism is very little to do with a class struggle. It has everything to do with the Islamic faith. Their hatred of traditional Islam is entirely based upon religion. Ditto, their hatred of the West. Our culture and our religion, or a lack of religion, are an anathema to the Islamic fundamentalists.
I think the left in the West has increasingly come to realize that they share no common ground with Islamic revolutionaries and that their liberal culture and anti-religionism is just as much an anathema to the Islamic fundamentalists as are anyone else in the West.
Last edited by Ned on 15-05-2003 at 00:15
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Arrian
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Kneel before Grog!
Jul 2001
time: 00:28
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From ArabNews (Saudi):
quote:
Editorial: The Enemy Within
14 May 2003
Words are inadequate to express the shock, the revulsion, the outrage at the suicide bombings in Riyadh. Are expatriates working here an army of occupation, to be slaughtered and terrorized into leaving?
This was an undertaking of sheer evil. Life — be it the life of Muslims, of Saudis, of Westerners, of anyone — is sacred, a gift from God. It was targeted as much against Saudi Arabia as against Westerners — not just because Saudis and Westerners alike have been killed and maimed but because the prime aim of those responsible for this despicable crime is to create panic and terror. Those responsible are the new fascists. Merciless, cold and full of hate, with a demented vision of Islam, they declared war on humanity for the thoroughly un-Islamic goal of separating and insulating the Muslim world from the rest of humanity, as part of which they hope to terrorize Westerners into leaving the Kingdom. They have no qualms about killing anyone who gets in their way; they spread hatred and resentment, not peace; yet they have the blasphemous effrontery to claim that they do God’s work. They make a mockery of Islam, an open, inclusive faith.
We have to face up to the fact that we have a terrorist problem here. Last week’s Interior Ministry announcement that 19 Al-Qaeda members, 17 of them Saudis, had planned terrorist attacks in the country and were being hunted was a wake-up call — particularly to those who steadfastly refuse to accept that individual Saudis or Muslims could ever do anything evil, who still cling to the fantasy that Sept. 11 and all the other attacks laid at the doors of terrorists who happen to be Arab or Muslim were in fact the work of the Israelis or the CIA. For too long we have ignored the truth. We did not want to admit that Saudis were involved in Sept. 11. We can no longer ignore that we have a nest of vipers here, hoping that by doing so they will go away. They will not. They are our problem and we all their targets now.
It goes without saying that those responsible, those who poisoned the minds of the bombers, those who are planning to become bombers, must be tracked down and crushed — remorselessly and utterly. But crushing them will not be enough. The environment that produced such terrorism has to change. The suicide bombers have been encouraged by the venom of anti-Westernism that has seeped through the Middle East’s veins, and the Kingdom is no less affected. Those who gloat over Sept. 11, those who happily support suicide bombings in Israel and Russia, those who consider non-Muslims less human than Muslims and therefore somehow disposable, all bear part of the responsibility for the Riyadh bombs.
We cannot say that suicide bombings in Israel and Russia are acceptable but not in Saudi Arabia. The cult of suicide bombings has to stop. So too has the chattering, malicious, vindictive hate propaganda. It has provided a fertile ground for ignorance and hatred to grow.
There is much in US policy to condemn; there are many aspects of Western society that offend — and where necessary, Arab governments condemn. But anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism for their own sake are crude, ignorant and destructive. They create hate. They must end. Otherwise there will be more barbarities.
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-Arrian
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13-05-2003 22:35
Not sure, but I think they are supposed to be secret, and if so how would you know whats gone on?
ACK!
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