The New Al Qaeda

Well, to follow from my first posting today, the London bombings still do need mention today. The main signal that the London bombings give is that Al Qaeda, unlike the Bush Administration, believe in evolution. Until the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in November 2001, Al Qaeda was a largely centralized terrorist group based in Afghanistan. After the invasion, it was dispersed. Most of the people captured in Afghanistan probably were not involved with or big players if they were involved in Al Qaeda. Starting with the bombings in Bali and also in the bombings in Madrid and London, not to mention the numerous Al Qaeda related bombings in Iraq (which, it should be noted are almost footnotes in the Western press compared to the London bombing, despite similar civilian casualty rates), the group has become much more dispersed. In my opinion, it demonstrates that while the group may be dispersed and in hiding (or in Pakistani shelter), the ideology of Osama bin Laden lives on with very little overall coordination. It is unlikely that the planners of the London bombings had any direction or even communication with the pre-9/11 heads of Al Qaeda. This provides a stark lesson for the West if the terrorism is to end soon: either elimate the causes for sympathy with Al Qaeda or expect more Al Qaeda attacks. It is a difficult challenge, but one that we can rise to. If we do rise to eliminate the causes of terrorist sympathizing, we will automatically also engage in behaviour that will repair the damage Bush has caused thus far to the U.S. image in the world. The Iraq war has nothing to do with it, or didn't before we invaded, and the best solution there is to withdraw our troops and fully support a U.N. resolution to the insurgency (as we were hesitant to do so many times in Central America; does anyone remember El Salvador in the 1980s and early 1990s and the "Communist threat" posed by the FMLN). Al Qaeda's cause is explainable without being unfixable and is most certainly an extreme fringe of the Muslim world who live under the same conditions. Their tactics are unforgivable, but so are some of the things the West has done in retaliation. It is time to hold those who have done us wrong to justice and hold our own who do wrong to others accountable and work towards a situation where there is no support for terrorist ideology and tactics anywhere.