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.<\/p>\n
Although argument by analogy is a pretty weak way of going about things, an analogy might help make things clear…<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Time passes.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p><\/div>\n
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..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading