[Dean's World] Ali Eteraz: OBL Is Winning (And We're Losing)

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Posted by Ali Eteraz:
OBL Is Winning (And We're Losing)
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1163361087.shtml


   Very interesting article, and very upsetting:

     Has al-Qaeda's policy resulted in any decrease in the will of U.S.
     allies to support U.S. military operations against the group and
     its allies? The following suggests that the answer to both may be:
     Yes, it is beginning to have some impact.

     - The conservative, pro-U.S. government of Spanish Prime Minister
     Jose Maria Aznar was defeated in an election soon after the March
     2003 Madrid attack. The victorious socialist regime of Prime
     Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is less pro-American and has
     withdrawn Spanish troops from Iraq.

     - In the summer of 2006, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's
     conservative, pro-U.S. government was defeated by a narrow margin,
     much of which appears to have consisted of those voters opposed to
     Rome's support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The new Italian
     government is planning to reduce the number of Italian troops in
     Iraq.

     - After facing a near revolt this summer in his Labor Party,
     British Prime Minister Tony Blair was compelled to appease the
     dissenters by announcing that he would step down from the
     premiership before he had intended to do so. The Labor Party's
     angerâbacked by many public opinion pollsâstemmed from Blair's
     hardy support for Washington's war on terrorism.

     - In October 2006, a group of Thai military officers staged a coup
     that removed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from office.
     Allegations of corruption have since been made against Thaksin, but
     the generals appear to have acted in large part to stop Thaksin's
     harsh military and law-enforcement operations against Islamist
     separatists in the country's three Muslim-dominated southern
     provinces. The coup leaders named a Muslim Thai general as the new
     prime minister, and he immediately announced his willingness to
     slow military operations and consider increased autonomy for the
     southern provincesâactions that Thaksin had refused to do.

     - In mid-October 2006, sources "close to the [French] military"
     leaked information showing that President Jacques Chirac's
     governmentâin the face of rising violence in Afghanistan and public
     condemnation of the Iraq warâwas formulating plans to withdraw its
     Special Forces from Afghanistan in 2007.

     - In the fall of 2006, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and
     Afghan President Hamid Karzai repeatedly tried to distance
     themselves from "excessive" military operations conducted by the
     United States in their countries.

   Not only that, but keep in mind Pakistan's backing out of Waziristan.

   The article also states that OBL made a peace offering to the
   Europeans in 2004:

     In April 2004, bin Laden again spoke to the populations of
     Washington's allies, warning that the previous month's attack on
     the Atocha train station in Madrid was another example of what was
     in store for them. He went on to claim that the European peoples
     and those of other U.S. allies were being lethally exploited by
     their leaders and multinational corporations, and suggested a
     possible peaceful resolution of the situation.

     "If one looks at the murders that are still going on in our
     countries and yours, an important truth becomes clear, which is
     that we are both suffering at the hands of your leaders, who send
     your sons to our countries, despite their objections, to kill and
     be killed," bin Laden said. "So it is in the interests of both
     sides to stop those who shed their own peoples' blood, both on
     behalf of narrow personal interests and on behalf of the White
     House gang...It is all too clear, then, who benefits most from
     stirring up this war and bloodshed: the merchants of war, the blood
     suckers who direct world policy from behind the scenes."

     He continued: "So I present to them [Europe's peoples] this peace
     proposal, which essentially is a commitment to cease [al-Qaeda]
     operations against any state that pledges not to attack Muslims or
     intervene in their affairs, including the American conspiracy
     against the great Islamic world. The peace can be renewed at the
     end of a government's term and the beginning of a new one, with the
     consent of both sides. It will come into effect on the departure of
     its last soldier from our lands, and is available for a period of
     three months from the day this statement is broadcast" [4].

     Bin Laden closed his speech offering a truce by reminding the
     Europeans that al-Qaeda and its allies only attack non-Muslims if
     Islamic lands are attacked, and that therefore "the solution to
     this equationâ¦lies in your own hands." The governments of Europe
     rejected bin Laden's truce offer, and al-Qaeda made its chief's
     words good by attacking the London transportation system on July 7,
     2005.

   My impression is that we conclude that 1) the Iraq war helped OBL (as
   all anti-war people argued), 2) policy towards Iraq began to define
   the war on terror (as opposed to the two wars being distinct and 3)
   our failure to defeat the insurgents will go down as a defeat for us,
   and worstly, a victory for Shaitan Al Awwal.

   How do you defeat Bin Laden? Well, I am hearing reports that in a
   study being conducted by Australians, the Jemaah Islamiyya in
   Indonesia, which was responsible for the Bali bombing, is breaking up,
   and its militants being pushed out. In a Reuters news piece that was
   forwarded to me (for which I don't have a link), it states the
   following:

     (Reuters) -- Southeast Asia's biggest militant organization is
     apparently seeking to rein in its radical wing and invoke Islamic
     law against the indiscriminate anti-Western attacks demanded by
     Osama bin Laden.

     Analysts say Web sites and other forums affiliated with the Jemaah
     Islamiah network now feature religious tracts that call into
     question a 1998 decree from bin Laden that Muslims must hit Western
     targets worldwide in defense of their faith.

   I believe I characterized that as the "information war." Others call
   it "building alliance" and some "multilaterlism." Bush and his cronies
   by insulting Islam by using the term "Islamofascism", and increasingly
   more and more members on the Right arguing that all Islam is evil, are
   attacking the one thing that seems to work well against militant
   Muslims -- namely, Islamic Law.