Terrorism is a crime. It's not an act of war, it's a crime.
When terrorism is treated as a crime, something to be dealt with by law enforcement working with security services, results happen. The key is sleuthing, not bombing.
Ask Momin Khawaja, the Canadian foreign affairs department computer tech, who's now facing life behind bars after being convicted, in Ottawa, of five terrorism charges. Evidence adduced at his trial showed that Khawaja was an Islamist extremist who joined forces with likeminded villains in England. He agreed to produce 30-bomb detonators for his chums.
It was police work that brought Khawaja down and a criminal justice system that's put him behind bars for what may well be the remainder of his natural life.
It's not often mentioned, but when it comes to thwarting al-Qaeda, the FBI and the CIA have been vastly more successful than the Pentagon.
Are we supposed to send our RCMP to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.
ReplyDeleteAre the Americans supposed to see the FBI to fight the terrorists in Iraq?
Interesting argument.
The Taliban are insurgents, nationalists, not terrorists. You really need to understand the key differences between insurgents and terrorists. But, since you ask, the FBI has been very successful in tracking down and arresting top terrorists in Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteAs for Iraq, the terrorists were largely put down by the Sunni "Awakening" movements, not by the US military. Again, understand the difference. As for the insurgency in Iraq, that's nicely simmering on the back burner - for now - but that whole country is destabilizing. Look at the American's open concern for the coming Shiite/Kurd scrap. When the American military publicly pronounces that it will stand aside if Baghdad and the Kurds mix it up, it speaks volumes.
What about the taliban who are not from Agfhanistan?
ReplyDeleteWhat are they called?
What are they called? They're called, for lack of a better word, Pakistanis. They're Pakistani Pashtun. Who do you think they are? There are many nationalities fighting with al-Qaeda -Bosnians, Chechens, Saudis, but the Talibs are a Pashtun tribal bunch.
ReplyDeleteWell if you got to another country to fight, clearly your a terrorist fighting for a political end.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I meant when I said the taliban are terrorists.
There not nationalists if there not from Afghanistan.
"That's what I meant when I said the taliban are terrorists."
ReplyDeleteHere we go again with grandiose conflations.
Did you know, Anon, that the Taliban was never put on any "terrorist list", even after 9/11?
You care to guess why?
That's right - because the Taliban has never been a "terrorist organization".
Welcome to reality, eh?
I think what might be confusing Anon, Mentarch, is the Durand Line which roughed out the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. You see, Anon, the Taliban are Pashtun and the border the British drew carved the Pashtun homeland almost in half, one part in Pakistan, the other in Afghanistan. This sort of thing is common throughout this region. It means you can have Pashtun who are Afghans and Pashtun who are Pakistani and most of them just consider themselves as Pashtun. That doesn't make them terrorists, just insurgents, guerrillas - and those are nationalist.
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested to know that, right up until he agreed to become Bush's vice president, Cheney headed a company called Halliburton which was, together with Unocal, lobbying for Washington to support the then Taliban government. I'm not making that up. You can find pictures on the internet of Unocal hosting Taliban visits to its offices in Sweetwater, Texas.