The Art Neuro Weblog

Terrorism and Policy

There was no transaction between Al Qaeda and Spain because:

a) The Spanish voters had no expectation that if they voted for Zapatero, Al Qaeda would cease it's attacks.

b) Al Qaeda cannot make agreements. It isn't an organism, it isn't even a unified organisation, so it can't make promises and therefore cannot participate in a transaction.

The notion that "giving in to terrorists only encourages them" presupposes that if you don't give in to them, they will be discouraged. This is not the way it works, just take a look at what is going on in Israel/Palestine. The various Palestinian terrorist groups have been pursuing unsuccessful policies for 20-30 years, and they're still going.

Al Qaeda's agenda is for the infidel crusaders to be drawn into a war with Islam and be defeated. If the infidels leave Iraq without being defeated, Al Qaeda loses. Al Qaeda does want the infidels out of Iraq, but it doesn't want them leaving by choice.

If the US government finds that it's "coalition of the willing" (ha ha ha) is a bit shaky, it has no-one to blame but itself. The fact is that the war was unjustifiable, and they were lucky to get so many countries involved. That luck will not last, and neither will the coalition. In a democratic system, an unpopular government will be removed, and the invasion of Iraq was extremely unpopular.

At the end of the day, Iraq is America's war, and if they wanted it so badly they should be prepared to fight it.

- James Lownie