Over at the LA Times, Nabih Bulos has an interesting expose on al Qaeda
Seventeen years after Sept. 11, Al Qaeda may be stronger than ever
In the days after Sept. 11, 2001, the United States set out to destroy Al Qaeda. President George W. Bush vowed to “starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest.â€
Seventeen years later, Al Qaeda may be stronger than ever. Far from vanquishing the extremist group and its associated “franchises,†critics say, U.S. policies in the Mideast appear to have encouraged its spread.
What U.S. officials didn’t grasp, said Rita Katz, director of the SITE intelligence group, in a recent phone interview, is that Al Qaeda is more than a group of individuals. “It’s an idea, and an idea cannot be destroyed using sophisticated weapons and killing leaders and bombing training camps,†she said.
The group has amassed the largest fighting force in its existence. Estimates say it may have more than 20,000 militants in Syria and Yemen alone. It boasts affiliates across north Africa, the Levant and parts of Asia, and it remains strong around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
It has also changed tactics. Instead of the headline-grabbing terrorist attacks, brutal public executions and slick propaganda used by Islamic State (Al Qaeda’s one-time affiliate and now rival), Al Qaeda now practices a softer approach, embedding itself and gaining the support of Sunni Muslims inside war-torn countries.
Look, Obama did a decent job in quietly going after Islamic terrorists while president. He loved him some drone strikes and sending in special forces. Some serious strikes. But, the very fact is that people like Obama and his people refused to acknowledge that radical Islam is an idea, and that it is growing, especially as more and more Muslims are indoctrinated into the hardcore beliefs. Al Shabbab is one of AQ’s largest franchises, then you have the Nusra Front in Syria, which is working with the rebels against Bashar Assad. These types of groups enjoy more support amongst Muslims than ISIS, being less brutal and attempting to be more inclusive.
They’re growing, being in Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, among others. Until you call out the mindset that creates the hardcore Islamists, you can’t hope to defeat it.
(graphic from this article)
tRump is president. Thanks, Donnie.
Does the far-right really believe you can defeat a vile ideology by denigrating ALL Muslims?
Except, Jeff, the anti-jihadi movement has gone to great pains to separate the extremists from the rest of the Muslims, hence why they are referred to as Islamists.
Perhaps you can explain why you and your far-left buds have gone to great lengths to make sure all criticism of the Islamists is deemed criticism of all Muslims, which gives aid and comfort to the extremists?
Nice try. Even Donald J. Trump referred to his plan as a Muslim ban, not an Islamist ban. GOP lawmakers exclusively have pushed over 200 anti-Muslim bills in state legislatures over the past several years. The sound and fury on the right makes little distinction between Muslims and terrorists.
In the immortal words of William Tecumseh Sherman, “The more we kill today, the fewer we have to kill tomorrow”.
In the immortal words of Philip Henry Sheridan, “The only good one is a dead one”.
Little Jeffery doesn’t get the idea that secular Moslems are as scared of the crazies as anybody and more than most because they could be the guys going to the mosque on Friday and will, no maybe, kill them if they express themselves.
They’d love to join the denunciation, but it would come at a high price.
Spot the liljeffy.
https://tinyurl.com/ycaqc86y
LOL! That sounds like a few conversations that I’ve had.
If you are not for The Resistance, you are against The Resistance.
Much like in Russia in 1918. Enemies of The People must be suppressed and removed.
As a minimum, I hope the current admin will not be sending funds to Al Qaeda like the previous one did.
And yes, calling a spade a spade, strong screening of immigrants, and strong law enforcement against islamic plotters are all important tools in limiting the expansion of this hateful and violent ideology in our country. We already have more than enough internal islamic terrorist plots, lone wolf attacks, terrorist funders, legal jihadis, criminal enterprises, student hate groups, etc. Let’s put a lid on it while its still manageable.
One of my biggest peeves is that hundreds of millions of dollars are raised for terrorist organizations in this country through theft and fraud rings. We should be going after these guys very hard, but it doesn’t seem like the feds are interested in what seems like small crimes of food stamp fraud or stolen car parts or grocery coupon fraud. And stop the damn “entrepreneur” visas for guys to open convenience stores where so much fraud is committed. That’s not an entrepreneur.
Trump administration shuts down PLO office in D.C. (finally).
https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2018/09/10/breaking.-trump-administration-orders-plo-office-shut-dares-icc-act
Good. Another charade ended, a little piece of the world’s swamp drained. Besides its anti-Israel political goals, I’m betting that the office was a coordination point for funneling crime money to Hamas, among other nefarious jihadi activities.
Thankfully, such initiatives lost one of its biggest patsies 2 weeks ago.