While most of us are busy being disenfranchised by the latest political news, as I was by hearing about how Obama ran his 1996 campaign in Chicago, the rest of the world seems to not realize how important the sound bites and slurs that pass for news are to the U.S. Those selfish foreign bastards probably don’t even care about “American Idol”, if you can imagine. But while the conflict in Iraq still draws the media’s eye, Afghanistan seems long forgotten. Which is fascinating, seeing as how the Taliban keeps reclaiming whole towns, and how the violence within that country seems to not know an end. Suicide bombers, remote bombs, and attacks on schools in Afghanistan are all on the rise, which should tell you just how good of a job we did routing the Taliban from there. It would seem that either the Taliban really loved their former homes, or they need to be there to tap into the extremely lucrative drug trade that operates with impunity within Afghanistan.
But the fun doesn’t end there, Michael Chertoff told BBC reporters that our good friends in Pakistan seem to still have that problem with religious extremists within their borders, and that while there were no immediate warnings as to attacks on the West, groups like Al-Queda were trying to recruit people that would blend in to Western countries without arousing suspicion. Mr. Chertoff spoke at Oxford, saying that extremists had “hijacked the language of Islam to mask an ideology that in some respects has more in common with the fascist organizations of the 1930’s.” As to who in the world he was trying to break this to, I could not guess, as we are all pretty much on the same page as regarding Islamic extremists as being completely nuts. I still to this day cannot fathom how Muslims became so incensed at a cartoon in a Danish newspaper featuring the prophet Mohammed, yet the bloody and extremely violent civil war within Islam between the Shia and Sunni seems to not draw the attention of those same faithful devotees.
It is difficult as an outsider to accurately gauge just where the political influence of countries like Iran (which is mostly Shia) and Saudi Arabia (mostly Sunni) begins and the religious influence ends. While both countries would without a shadow of a doubt love to be in control of the staggering amount of oil beneath the sands if Iraq, can the political leadership be held responsible for the actions of those that believe they are fighting for their God? And why in the heck do those religious warriors not notice what the political and economic ramifications of their actions would be, where their actions to be successful someday? Which is certainly not to say that our own actions in the region are without consequences, as we are slowly coming to realize the implications of invading a country that was at best, a paper tiger, without the means or resources to be any true threat to our safety. But some still say our invasion was warranted, even if all the reasons initially given have all proven false. While Saddam was a despot, and did indeed actually advocate state sponsored terrorism, the number of countries which also do this are numerous, and indeed include some of our current allies. Perhaps “allies” is too strong a word, lets just call them “countries that we are not currently thinking of bombing and/or invading.” Yes, that seems to fit the bill a bit better.
As to how or when we will ever actually apprehend or kill those immediately responsible for the attack on 9/11, no one seems to know. You would think that would be important, but it seems you would be wrong. Silly you.
