As others have pointed out, the fact that al-Qaida may have bombed the trains in Madrid in retaliation for Spain’s involvement in Iraq doesn’t prove that there was any sort of connection between Iraq and al-Qaida. All it proves is that al-Qaida continues to try to frame their actions as part of an on-going “clash of civilizations” between the West and the Middle East and Islam and that they’re willing to exploit whatever material they’re given in order to wage their war.
Although argument by analogy is a pretty weak way of going about things, an analogy might help make things clear…
In another part of the city there is another gang called the Rocks whose membership is entirely black but who isn’t all that interested in a race war. In fact, they’re pretty squarely opposed to the idea of a race war; they just want to take over the turf of neighboring gangs. One day a representative of the Wolves ventures into Rock territory and makes an offer of alliance; if the Rocks and the Wolves joined forces they would have a better chance of defeating the LAPD. The leader of the Rocks says no thanks; he’s had a run-in with the LAPD before and is on probation. The Wolves ask for guns or recruits and the Rocks tell them to beat it.
Time passes.
One day some thugs from the Wolves go gang-banging and shoot the chief of police and kill a bunch of other people. Those gang-bangers are arrested but their leader remains at large. The chief of police, wounded but not dead, declares a War on Gangs and orders a raid on the Wolves’ territory. The leader of the Wolves goes underground and evades capture. Desperate to prove that he’s doing something about the gang problem in Los Angeles, the chief of police decides to clean up some old garbage by taking this opportunity to take down the Rocks. Some wonder what this has to do with taking out the Wolves, who did the real killing, but the chief of police goes ahead with his plans with the staunch support of two of his best officers, Tony and Alberto. When asked to explain the connection between the Wolves and the Rocks, the chief of police explains that the Wolves and the Rocks have met before about the Wolves getting support, especially guns, from the Rocks. There are a lot of people who are skeptical of this connection.
The LAPD lays the smack down on the Rocks. About this time the leader from the Wolves says, “See, they’re out to oppress black people. Look what they did to the Rocks!” Using this alleged attack on African-Americans as a whole, the Wolves go gang-banging again and this time shoot Officer Alberto.
Does this attack on Alberto prove a connection between the Wolves and the Rocks? No, not really, but that doesn’t mean that even though the Rocks were ideologically opposed to the Wolves, the Wolves were still eager to interpret the crackdown on the Rocks through their world-view as an attack on all African-Americans..
I would replace race with religion in the analogy, but other than that, a fair assessment.
I really don’t think that some Rocks are as opposed to war as they would lead others to believe though.
After 9/11 the United States began the War on Terror. It is not, and has never been, a war against Al Qaida. The end game of the conflict is not the elimination of one terrorist group but the elimination of terrorism as a means of conflict. The first target was the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, sponsor and protector of the terrorists who attacked on 9/11. The second target a brutal dictator with proven financial ties to numerous terrorist organizations and history of developing and using weapons of mass destruction.
Al Qaida has claimed responsibility for the bombing. Reason: Spain supporting USA in Iraq. To now say there is no tie is illogical.
Al Qaida, ETA, ANO, GIA, Hamas, IRA…it’s all the same group of global psychos.
A better question:
Did our action in Iraq help or hinder terrorist groups? The answer is hinder, unless you are a fucking idiot.
Linda,
I think you’re right that the tie between al-Qaida and Iraq is more one of religion than race, but that’s why analogies are imperfect and simplified.
PasholNah,
Al Qaida has claimed responsibility for the bombing. Reason: Spain supporting USA in Iraq. To now say there is no tie is illogical.
That’s precisely what I was arguing against. Did you read the whole post or just the subject heading?
Hi all,
Salam alaikum too,
Actually the race/religion analogy is just fine. The splinter groups that conduct political murders (I have this problem with the word “terrorism” — it’s just a kind of a murky word, sorry), are so exclusive in their belief that they alone are pure, that they excuse even killing their co-religionists whom they argue have given up their religion by merely co-existing peacefully with others in a Western country. Their purist attitude is more like racism than religiosity. I am speaking as a Muslim here. I have heard their rhetoric and read it.
“Their purist attitude is more like racism than religiosity.”
I had to read through that a couple of times. It’s very early and I have NOT had enough coffee.
Let me see if I understand. Like Jews, Muslims are considered both a race and religion, right? You state that this has more to do with race than religion…that “they excuse even killing their co-religionists whom they argue have given up their religion by merely co-existing peacefully with others in a Western country.”
Isn’t that still about religion more than race? Aren’t they saying that they alone adhere to the standards of old and religion more than some Muslims who has begun to see that we can all coexist in the same world and still maintain our religious identity?
Perhaps the two can’t be easily separated and this is as much race as it is religion. But, it’s an obvious superiority complex.
Did our action in Iraq help or hinder terrorist groups? The answer is hinder, unless you are a fucking idiot.
So, since I’m worried about those alleged WMDs that still haven’t been found and could have fallen into any hands you care to name, and the fact that US forces are now having to stop various factions of Iraqis from blowing each other up after the rule of law collapsed, makes me a fucking idiot?
A better question yet: Why do human beings love to see everything in black/white terms with yes/no answers?
I don’t have a clever answer to that one.
“The end game of the conflict is not the elimination of one terrorist group but the elimination of terrorism as a means of conflict.”
That’s an awfully nebulous goal and one that can not possibly succeed. One has to wonder if the stated goal is the same as the intended goal.
“Al Qaida has claimed responsibility for the bombing. Reason: Spain supporting USA in Iraq. To now say there is no tie is illogical.”
Which was part of PDP’s point but considering this it then makes no sense to assert the following:
“Did our action in Iraq help or hinder terrorist groups? The answer is hinder, unless you are a fucking idiot.”
Whether the fairly undefined nebulous “terrorist groups” were helped or hindered seems not to matter. You yourself admit that they were spurred on to commit further acts of terrorism.