Thanks, autz. Good link.
Yes, ObL hates Saddam. He also hates Musharraf and the Saud family. And the latter are actually helping the US in destroying al-Qaeda. Simply because Pakistan and Saudi Arabia contain many terrorists, that doesn’t mean we should attack them; what matters is whether the governments are cooperating. If we were at war with Pakistan, do you really think they would have handed over that al-Qaeda leader they recently captured? How would attacking either of these countries help?
Look up “Dar-al-Harb” some time. See what is permitted to be done to all people of Dar-al-Harb by Muslims. The USA is part of Dar-al-Harb. All countries that are not explicitly under Shari-a are part of Dar-al-Harb.
Osama Bin Laden wants the following:
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That the U.S destroy all its WMD
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That the U.S show proof that it has destroyed all its WMD
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That Bush go on T.V and admit to the world that he’s a Jerk
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That Bush and his family and friends leave the country in 48 hours
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…and then … massive nuclear destruction anyway cause you just can’t trust those tricky deceptive yanks.
I cited Saudi Arabia because that’s where the vast majority of guys who flew airplanes into buildings on Sept. 11 came from. It’s also where Al-Qaeda gets most of its money, by all accounts.
You’re right, the Saudi royals are helping us fight Al-Qaeda, but I suspect that it’s not a wholehearted thing. Saudi Arabia is the most powerful exponent of wahhabism, a virulent fundamentalist version of Islam that’s been exported worldwide via Saudi-supported schools. And while the Saudis have exposed some sources of financial support for Al-Qaeda, I’ll bet there’s still plenty of money flowing to Al-Qaeda through less obvious channels.
In short, I think the Saudis are the kind of “friends” who draw you closer to make it easier to stab you in the back. They let us have troops on their soil only because they know that if it weren’t for our troops, the next set of troops on their soil would be Iraqi troops.
I cited Pakistan because it’s clear that a lot of al-Qaeda members are being harbored in eastern Pakistan. That’s because there’s a large ethnic minority in eastern Pakistan that is the same ethnic group that the Taliban arose from in Afghanistan, and which still supports the Taliban and al-Qaeda. They’re a problem for the Pakistani government in that they just barely allow themselves to be governed by them. Prolly more than start a war, we should strike up a deal with them to have a military op in eastern Pakistan that would benefit us both – find the al-Qaeda/Taliban scum and kill or capture them and also remind the eastern Pakistanis that they do in fact have a government that has power over them.
Hard concept for Americans to grasp is touched on in Evil Captor’s posts:
Their is such lawlessness in regions of certain countries (Western Pakistan) that those regions might as well not even be part of the country. They have mulitple ruling factions and borderline anarchy- or flat out anarchy You NEED Pakistan as an ally to walk the tight rope that such an area puts you on.
I am amazed that so many people fail to grasp this simple concept. Even in relatively lawful countries like Saudi Arabia, there are millions of people and some of them may not follow the official government line. Just because some of the terrorists came from Saudi Arabia does not mean that every Saudi is a terrorist and expecting the government of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to control every terrorist is about as reasonable as expecting the US governement to control every street gang and criminal here at home.