• 
• 
  • Arts & Culture
  • City Hall
  • Environment
  • Housing & Displacement
  • Immigrant Rights
  • LGBQT
  • Poverty
  • Youth & Schools
• 
  • Features
  • News Briefs
  • Newswire
  • Headlines
• 
  • Mailing Lists
  • PhillyIMC's Wiki
  • LAVA
  • Contact us
• 
• 
• 
• 

Recent Similar Articles

• > Blaming al Qaeda more doesn't mean more war

• > Ron Paul, Santorum and bin Laden - personal morality their followers admire
• > Ron Paul and Churchill, Echoes of "Blood, Sweat and Tears”
• > House of Horrors - Is the solution Punishment or Better Service
• > Police arresting not only Occupier but marchers (Spring Garden St)
• > Stopping Evictions, Occupy Philly joins LA and MN

• > fbi homicidal sociopath orders:"kill yourself geral sosbee"
• > Fort Hood Shooting Spree
• > FBI Arrests Four Dupes in Marketing Extravaganza

• > Terror attack may be imminent
• > A surprising number are criticizing Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo

When Obama indicated he was going to sign an executive order closing Guantanamo, al Qaeda announce in an internet video that Jamal al-Badawi was elevated to second in command in Yemen.  Even though the former bomber of the Cole, a US ship stationed near Yemen during the Clinton Administration was never in Guantanamo, he had been in US custody before being turned over to Yemen to face execution, but escaped, and this was enough for some noting the video to urge that Guantanamo not be closed. 

Obama is not only threatening al Qaeda directly but threatening their confidence of what the distant future might look like.  During Bush we had a bunch of unnecessary terror alerts, as both Bush and al Qaeda settled on the idea that the major battle was going to be in Iraq instead of Pakistan or the US. 

Perhaps there are al Qaeda sleeper cells poised to attack in the event of a major attack on Pakistan to prevent such things as al Qaeda inheriting Pakistani nukes.  If so, there may not be any organized terror response to the US, no mater what else Obama does.  But the threat is now far more real then under Bush who was careful not to pull their chain too hard. 

Bush spending a fortune on ever, incredibly more expensive smart weapons, while al Qaeda can kill cheaply, made them expect an eventual economic collapse of the US, and no reason to risk changing the dynamics with a wild card such as a massive US terror attack again. 

Real peace, like in Northern Ireland, is rare.  Mostly when there is a real peace scare, militants on both sides rune it, rather than suddenly feel unwanted by their more casual followers.  In Northern Ireland, a real exception, both ordinary Protestants and ordinary Catholics feared their militants spoiling the peace process, and that fear more than anything else made peace possible. 

Tom Fox a Quaker went to Iraq to declare peace similar to what Jane Fonda during Vietnam was cheered by North Vietnam for, but Fox along with Doctors Without Borders’ physicians in Afghanistan were beheaded.  So Obama has a desperate al Qaeda not wanting its dreams of a united warring Muslim nation dashed, dreaming of derailing his Presidency. 
               
There, today, are wonderful opportunities, along with real frustrations.  How do we push Obama to do right when he hates to appear to be being pushed, such as when gays tried to make him sack Rev. Rich Warner's participation in the Inaugural celebration?  How do we end the blockage of Cuba quickly that also hurts the US economy now when we can least afford it?  How do we push Obama to speak out against massive Israeli overreaction, and send a flotilla of aid by boat to Palestine, past the Israeli blockage or trickle in bottleneck, while we support whatever baby steps he will at first do?  People not arguing, with those who are trying to postpone the closing of Guantanamo, is not a step in the right direction. 

Some efforts against al Qaeda have been effective.  The mass demonstrations in Jordan after al Qaeda bombed a wedding party, organized by Queen Noor, had so much support and propaganda value that al Qaeda agreed to leave Jordan alone.  Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal correspondent was lured to Pakistan by al Qaeda terrorists, forced to state on internet video that he was part of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, then beheaded for the crime.  His relatives organized the Daniel Pearl Foundation sponsoring joint Muslim-Christian-Jewish peace seminars and concerts.  Muslims participating believe that are standing up to al Qaeda in a hopefully safe way, and I hope the other participants are doing this as well.  Sadly in the long-run Yemen had a policy of amnesty for al Qaeda members that would renounce violence that divided the militant Muslim community in a very creative way.  Fugitive Jamal al-Badawi, of the Cole bombing turned himself in and was then released in line with Yemen’s peace policy much to the shergin of the US.  Now al Qaeda claims that al-Badawi had only agreed to leave Yemen alone and announced he was second in commend to steal the limelight away from Obama’s order for Guantanamo to be closed.  This also is disrupting a once very successful effort against al Qaeda extreme militants that disrupted internal al Qaeda solidarity. 

Since Tom Fox and Doctor’s Without Border’s physicians were beheaded, being peaceful won’t make al Qaeda go melt away.  I have an in-between suggestion that I have been having trouble distributing.  The antiwar sites tend not to think it is peaceful enough and the pro-standing up to terror sites think it is too peaceful.

Al Qaeda claims it is returning the Muslim World to 10th century Islam.  But it is making so many changes, that a Muslim Cleric in Spain on the anniversary of the Madrid commuter train bombing called al Qaeda a heresy against Islam.  There were no woman in the early Muslim armies.  Joan of Arc was a Christian.  Children weren’t used as look-outs and spies.  The concept of child suicide combatants would not have inspired Prophet Mohammad.  They didn’t get drunk before battle like the 9/11 hijackers or hide to fact they were Muslims.  They banned, not taxed drugs, unlike the al Qaeda invigorated Taliban is doing.  Prophet Mohammad said a lot about protecting the innocent and the helpless, and certainly wouldn’t have attacked two US embassies in Africa, during rush-hour, killing at a lot of innocent Muslims who were in the way, while unintentionally providing cover for the attack. 

I would like to see Obama demand that al Qaeda agree to fight by Prophet Mohammad’s rules.  Even though the West could care less that 9/11 hijackers got drunk, make that part of the demand.  Then tell Pakistan that we are going in to arrest al Qaeda, and shot them if they shoot at us.  It isn’t the US style, but openly sending a small force to do just that, before any backup invasion to defend them, if they are stopped.  Perhaps the bin Laden wing will agree, or perhaps they would be turned in, or their whereabouts turned in by others, especially if agreeing to such things as cutting aid to Israel until Peace Now heads the Israeli government is part of the reward for turning bin Laden’s top aids in, instead of just a million-dollar reward.  Maybe I should have left the last sentence off.  But somehow the US has to let other Muslims concretely know we are not mad at them, if there is any hope of successfully stopping al Qaeda.  Perhaps it should be the UN not the US who goes in and tries to arrest al Qaeda in Pakistan, but deputize US equipment and US volunteers might be a necessary part of the package.  Make no mistake about it, as long as Obama is the main thing in the way of al Qaeda’s dream of a united Muslim warring class that is part of a united Muslim nation, he will be considered their number one enemy by the bin Laden wing of al Qaeda.

The US historically likes things like the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that turn out differently in the history books then they seemed at the time.  I don’t think accidentally falling into a war with Pakistan is the right solution.  Or pretending that dreaming will by itself will change things like Tom Fox did before he was beheaded. 

Please see,
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/14654 
RichardKaneInPhiladelphiaPA RichardKanePA (@aol.com)