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bin Laden Feeling The Heat
April 15, 2004
I'm having a hard time grokking the claim by one expert cited in this AP story. He says it's not surprising bin Laden has offered to call off the dogs in Europe if European nations will eschew all involvement in Iraq and cease other supposedly hostile actions against Muslims. I imagine that last part includes following through on the recent arrests of terrorist suspects in England and Spain. The story says al-Qaeda's leader is just being "opportunistic," as might be expected. I say the man's worried, and playing his cards badly. Can he possibly imagine, after the post-Madrid arrests tied to new terrorist plots in Spain and England, and the busting up of terrorist cells in Turkey and Italy, that he can essentially threaten Europe with more terrorism unless it "...does not carry out an onslaught against Muslims or interfere in their affairs." Methinks he's pissed the French helped U.S. and Pakistani forces trying to capture him and top lieutenants recently in rough mountain terrain near the Afghanistan border. Meanwhile, Germany is helping train Iraqi security forces, and Italy is seething over the killing of a Italian civilian by militants in Iraq. And I don't think Iraqi Shi'ites can be too pleased at reports al-Qaeda paid a former Iraqi intelligence officer to arrange the bombing deaths of 180 pilgrims last month. Osama's ploy - which was firmly rejected by European leaders - suggests: a) he does still pull the strings for Islamic terrorists, to a very significant extent; b) he's disturbed by growing unity bewteen the U.S. and Europe against terrorism; c) terrorism is its own worst enemy; and d) Bush is now even more correct than before that the war to liberate Iraq is part and parcel of the war on terror. Thanks for clearing all that up, bearded one! Posted by Matt Rosenberg at April 15, 2004 04:48 PM Trackback Pings TrackBack URL for this entry: Comments:
Of course I agree wholeheartedly with the moral sentiments you express in this comment. But I am not so sure about the strategic ineffectiveness of UBL's latest offer to the Europeans. Unfortunately, the fact that most European governments have repudiated this offer proves very little. The real audience for this proposal is made up of the electorates who may repudiate them, just as the Spanish did. Consider the simple logic of free-riding: (1) Either the Americans will prevail in Afgahnistan and Iraq, or they will not. Our [supply any European country] military is too puny to make any significant contribution to the outcome in either case. Why, then, should we put ourselves at risk for a mostly symbolic gesture? (2) Besides, the Americans probably deserve what they get for their "arrogant" dismissal of our advice not to invade Iraq. They have provoked the extremists; let them reap the consequences of which we warned them. The second element of this "syllogism" is a rationalization, of course. But do not most people offer such rationalizations to themselves to excuse the blatant self-interest expressed in the first line of thought? Posted by: Tom Rekdal at April 15, 2004 07:11 PMPost a comment
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