What do you guys think about al qaida saying they have 12,000 troops in Iraq and they are winning the war and?

Question

will not stop until they blow up the White House? They also praised Americans for voting for democrats but they are still going to blow up The White House. Does anyone find that as terrifying as I do? I hope this Bob Gates knows what he is doing.

Answer 1

Al Qaeda is composed of psychos, but unfortunately not stupid psychos (if so they’d all be dead by now, I’m sure).

When they say that they have 12,000 fighters in Iraq and that they are winning the war, they probably aren’t too far off. And of course, what they say is propaganda (and a form of psychological attack on us).

To begin, let me state that I am not a Democrat or Republican. I hate both parties equally, because both have catered to their own interests instead of the interests of the People and the United States of America as a whole. I see the polarized politics in the US that endangers our state when she is in mortal danger, and I feel shamed when I see Americans on both ends of the spectrum duke it out rather than try to find common ground and try to understand where the other side is coming from.

The Al Qaeda video praised Americans for voting Democrat. A few posters attacked the Democratic Party, which if generalized and applied to the general public, would illustrate something important. This was a very smart move on Al Qaeda’s part. Why? Because it is “divide and conquer.” Al Qaeda is taking advantage of our polarized politics to drive American against American. Our lack of solidarity weakens our resolve to win against them. Some people may attack Democrats because they don’t seem to have the will to fight. But perhaps, the Democrats do have the will to fight, but in other ways, which will lead to my next point.

The way the United States is approaching the Al Qaeda threat is through conventional warfare. It would work if we were fighting another state, but Al Qaeda is a non-state actor. An unconventional enemy requires unconventional means of defeating it. And asymmetrical threats such as Al Qaeda feeds upon the military might of the United States to bring support for their cause. Asymmetrical warfare takes advantage of an enemy’s strength and makes it into a weakness or liability. So how is our method of dealing with the “war on terror” ineffective and inefficient?

To defeat the enemy in any conflict (and the whole point of war really), is to destroy the enemy’s will to fight and make them conform to our will. Yet, by using heavy ended conventional warfare (ie. artillery strikes, air strikes, basically putting as much firepower on target) creates an illusion of David vs Goliath; them David, us Goliath; thus weakening our moral legitimacy. We are definitely David, because we want to protect ourselves and the world from the psychos from Al Qaeda. But we look like Goliath in the face of the rest of the world because innocent civilians are harmed and we seem to be beating a spoiled brat with a whip. And if we were to see someone beat their child in public with a whip, they would probably be arrested for child abuse. Even no matter how bad the child has been, that person becomes a criminal. And of course, we don’t wish to harm innocent civilians intentionally, but the enemy likes to hide where there are for the purpose of propaganda and the David vs Goliath illusion. And on top of that, Arab culture is traditional; its structure is based on the clans, tribes, families, etc and the value is honor. When a person in the clan, tribe, family, is killed, we must pay blood debt to the family, clan, and tribe of the slain. If we do not, they are obliged by “honor” to gain revenge. Yes, their concept of “honor” is much different from the West’s concept of “honor.” My point is, we are essentially giving people reason to fight us, rather than reducing the enemy’s will to fight.

If anyone has been educated in martial arts, they are taught to first reduce reasons for people to want to fight, avoid fighting, and if no other options are possible, fight only to defend ourselves and neutralize the opponent. The concept is the same. We must reduce reasons for people to fight and avoid fighting. Of course, Al Qaeda is full of psychos who would fight us for being who we are and what we believe in but not the Iraqi insurgents. There is not 100% solution, I will admit, but at least there’s a 51% solution.

Finally, if one were to look in the long term and at the big picture, think about the amount of resources that the United States will have to expend if we continue in our method of fighting the “war on terror.” Our debt has been piling up high and the cost in equipment and human lives has been high. Sun Tzu wrote, “Do not fight in protracted wars. The weapons will be dulled and the Treasury will be emptied.” This “war on terror” has been shown to be a protracted war and will have a great impact on the US resources. Who will foot the bill of the conflict? The taxpayers of the United States. Our money and our children’s lives will be sacrificed for this endeavor. They are trying to suck us dry as they did the Soviet Union in the Soviet-Afghan War in 1980. And we’re falling for it. I am not saying that we should not fight; we should and we must because these psychos in Al Qaeda want to kill us for being who we are. And I for one, am planning to go fight them one day myself, because they want to impose their will on me and I don’t want to live under their version of Sharia law. But I truly believe that there are other ways to defeat the enemy, rather than using the expensive and ineffective means of conventional warfare.

If I say that our current methodology is wrong, people will ask me, “Do YOU have a BETTER idea?” And it is a fair question to which I would definitely take time and energy to give a thoughtful answer to. Unfortunately, I will be general, as I am researching and trying to figure it out right now. It is military-centric because that is where my specialty lies. To learn from our past mistakes, mistakes of others, past successes, successes from others, I would say for our current situation in Iraq we must have massive policy change. Utilize the ink blot strategy used by Special Forces in Vietnam, and the Combined Action Platoon concept used by the Marine Corps in Vietnam. Stop using excessive firepower; develop true light infantry so we fight the enemy mano a mano, devise ways of dividing them, create alliances and learn to shift alliances whenever it suits our needs, shape the enemy, shape the battlefield. Figure out economic, social, and political means to weaken the enemy everywhere they are and everywhere they recruit and gain support from (ie Africa, the next hotspot). Minimize military means and military footprint as much as possible all over the world when fighting “war on terror” via Special Forces or develop SWAT-like military units that go in quietly, kill the enemy precisely with minimal collateral damage. Ramp up intelligence so that it’s geared towards HUMINT rather than SIGINT, maybe use Splinter Cells, like in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell games, intelligence is key so that the specialized military units can go to wherever the enemy is, no matter what country, take the enemy out. Also helps to prevent future attacks. Basically think of any shadowy, sneaky means to fight the enemy, rather than overtly with such heavy mobilized force (brute strength). Remember what great soldiers said, “War is sucker punching the enemy as many times as you can before they notice it.”

Answer 2

Why does anything these people say claim any validity? What are they going to say,that their membership is falling and they are losing the war? If the US voted to change the colour of street lights the al Qaeda would claim victory. These people are striving to kill americans and change the west to their concept of right and just. They have learned from the best that propaganda is as important as a gun in this kind of war and they use both well. One of the things that I would do is pour men and resources into Iraq. This would do two things. It would concentrate the attention of the US on Iraq so they would ignore Afghanistan, where by the way Osama is, and it would allow the real fire training and exercises of the young men being turned out in the training camps in Afghanistan. There is a theme here. Iraq is a red herring that will distract the might of the US and devour it's resources and morale. I have heard that the family Bush and Dick Cheney had close ties with the ben Landen family and may have links with the attacks on the USA and the ignoring of evidence prior to WTC. If so the insistence of the Shrub in remaining in Iraq with inadequate forces to win makes sense. Osama is only a cats paw of oil interests and the House of Saud( which is close to be toppled) and the plan is vaster then our nightmares tell us. It is possible the cats paw is long since escaped the control the cabal. Just an Idea.

Answer 3

with the aid of fact we are turning a blind eye to the futility of the conflict over there. England tried this interior the early 1900's and left...we are able to finally end up the comparable way..going abode much less a fabulous style of yankee lives and no greater desirable off.Had we stayed out interior the 1st place we wouldn;t be dealing with this now. The conflict on the middle type right here at house is not any secret, the wealthy have become richer and something each and every physique is suffering to make ends meet.

Answer 4

Hopefully Bob Gates does, but based on these statements abour 55% of the US voters certainly don't, considering they just voted in who terrorists wanted.

BigD- would you rather have done something to protect our country before another attack and be wrong and alive

or

Do nothing and be wrong and be dead.

It's like the old saying, it's better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have one.
Take your pick.



solid132- For 8 years the Clinton Administration told us or more aptly did not tell us, anything and that as far as they were concerned we were not in any danger, yet 9/11 happened and the guys that did it did not plan it in the 8 months Bush was in office. So you tell me who stands to gain by the American people being informed about a threat and the US government doing something about, who stands to gain from that, we all do!


You tell me this is propoganda:

www.obsessionthemovie.com

The "Death to America" is especially a nice touch!

Answer 5

I think that Al Qaida just joined the Democratic Party; or was it the other way around? We predicted this would happen and now it's coming true. bugging out like the Libs want to do will result in more attacks on Americans abroad and at home.

Answer 6

Republicans have said it would be this way all along, and it is now come to fruition. Al-Queda has 8 years of the Clinton administration to look at for examples of the democrat response. Each time, during Clinton's 2 terms in office, the US was hit by a terrorist attack, Clinton would get on TV with his alligator tears and say how saddened he was by these events and the families of the victims had his support and sympathy, and then vow to find those who did it; the funny thing is, not one time did he take action.

Clinton had to be on the verge of being caught lying to Congress while under oath before he would fain retaliation on Al-Queda, and then it was on an aspirin factory full of innocent people in Sudan.

Answer 7

Does anyone think 9-11 was propaganda??? Do you people not realize what has happened?? The middle east will declare holy war against the US and the democrats will say oh well maybe you're right we are a bunch of liberal pukes that can't stand up for ourselves so go ahead and bomb our shores and make us all believe in your Allah.... WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!

Answer 8

They are a bunch of ragtag, out-of-their-head freakshow pukes that are worth less than what my dog leaves in the yard every day. They have a twisted evil view of the world and decent people, and hide behind mohammed and his insane legacy.
I hope every single good for nothing islamic-extremist gets his puny little head blown clean off. And if that ain't enough, set fire to every hole they call home.

Answer 9

If I were you, I'd be worrying about dumb @ss Nancy Pelosi knowing what she is doing! The stupid American voters played right into the hands of Islam. This is just what the goddamn arabs wanted, and the lemmings gave it to them. Now, what are they going to do about it? Ask for a meeting, apply diplomacy, or just eat sh it and die?

Answer 10

12,000 troops? They may have 12,000 idiots who are terrorists who would most likely blow up anything they are told to.

Answer 11

Blame Bush/Blair