(urth) This week in Google alerts

[Lee Berman]

>James Wynn: You seem to be assuming that terrorist groups do what they do 
>just because they like making bombs and blowing things up.
 
I think some do. Others are angling for political power. The ones that get
the power must, by necessity, redirect their efforts into keeping that power
a very different game. Often they must learn to stamp out their own terrorist
insurgents, demonizing those who use the very same tactics they had previoiusly 
used.
 
>Haven't they (al Qaeda) been rather open in their ambitions to establish an Islamic 
>caliphate? They were the standing army of the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan.

No, there was never more than a few hundred Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. They weren't 
trained as local Afghan soldiers to carry guns and stage ground attacks. That was/is
the Taliban.  Al Qaeda were arabic terrorist types trained in making bombs and such.
They were all kicked out of Afghanistan years ago (including bin Laden). Neither side 
of the Afghan civil war ended up liking them very much.
 
And the Islamic Caliphate stuff was lip service. Just silly talk. There hasn't been
one glimmer of such a thing produced by the efforts of Al Qaeda. Just blown up 
buildings and planes and stuff. I must conclude they like doing that more than they
like Islam. I guess they can get some credit for supporting the current Islamic regime 
in Mogadishu, such as it is. But that's about it.
 
I guess we'll probably have to disagree, James. Perhaps there have been some minor blips 
in history where a government regime consists of a small minority who manage to enslave 
a majority of millions, starving them to death and using the economic pillage to finance 
endless attacks on other nations. 
 
I can't see that as sustainable for any length of time, despite the fact that my own national 
media/government paints a relentless picture of that scenario to describe its enemies. North 
Korea is surely not as nice a place as its government portrays it to be. But neither is it the 
desolate wasteland of enslaved millions, starving and dying like dogs in the streets, as we are 
taught it is. They used to say that about Cuba also, until recent documentaries have provided
a more honest picture of life in that nation.