Psycho4Bud
10-21-2005, 06:38 PM
In short, many argue: it's about territory, stupid! This view is held by thinkers on both sides of the left/right divide. So some of a leftish persuasion have come dangerously close to gushing over al-Qaeda and its offshoot groups, or at least seeking to explain their actions with reference to historic movements for land and freedom. Tariq Ali, for example, compares the al-Qaeda-inspired insurgents in Iraq - those car-bombing killers of children and religious worshippers - to the French resistance to the fascist Vichy regime, and said of the 9/11 attacks that 'the subjects of the [American] Empire had struck back', demonstrating the 'universal truth thatā?¦slaves and peasants do not always obey their masters.' (2) He wilfully overlooked the fact that the 'peasants' who organised 9/11 were in fact middle-class students with cushy lives.
On the right, al-Qaeda is referred to as an 'Islamo-fascist' movement seeking to create a 'Greater Islamic State' in which sharia law will be ruthlessly enforced and the people will dream of the good old days when they were dominated by comparatively civilised and mild-mannered Westerners. A recent piece on Open Democracy went so far as to describe al-Qaeda as 'classically imperialist', since it wishes to 'craft the next chapter of human history in its own image' (3). Come off it: al-Qaeda's leaders can't even craft an escape route from Waziristan, never mind human history. Such views wilfully overlook the fact that al-Qaeda is mostly made up of pissed-off posh kids who spend their days fantasising about jihad in chatrooms on the world wide web and occasionally muster up enough nerve to strap a homemade bomb to themselves and murder some civilians. History is not normally made by such individuals.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CADD4.htm
This pretty much sums it up!
On the right, al-Qaeda is referred to as an 'Islamo-fascist' movement seeking to create a 'Greater Islamic State' in which sharia law will be ruthlessly enforced and the people will dream of the good old days when they were dominated by comparatively civilised and mild-mannered Westerners. A recent piece on Open Democracy went so far as to describe al-Qaeda as 'classically imperialist', since it wishes to 'craft the next chapter of human history in its own image' (3). Come off it: al-Qaeda's leaders can't even craft an escape route from Waziristan, never mind human history. Such views wilfully overlook the fact that al-Qaeda is mostly made up of pissed-off posh kids who spend their days fantasising about jihad in chatrooms on the world wide web and occasionally muster up enough nerve to strap a homemade bomb to themselves and murder some civilians. History is not normally made by such individuals.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CADD4.htm
This pretty much sums it up!