Al-Qaeda is most definitely a bunch of knuckle-draggers however,

[Postman]

they're not ONLY fueled by their religious fanaticism. After all, U.S. foreign policy relied on that very same religious fanaticism to help them repel the Soviets from Afghanistan. Plus, U.S. does business with a country that adopts the most extreme sect of Islam known as Wahabism, Saudi Arabia. So that really can't bother them all that much.

What the mainstream madia doesn't talk about is that Al-Qaeda is also driven by what it sees as U.S. imperialism and uncritical support of Israel in suppressing the Palestinians.

To win the "war on terrorism" you need to take away the REASON for there being terrorism, not just "kill the terrorists" as they constantly regurgitate.

As long as there is no resolution to a fair settlement of the Palestinian/Israel issue and NOW, the Iraq debacle, we can expect MORE terrorism. To which I might add, the Bush/PNAC/Carlyle Group crowd would love to see continue.

They are what Eisenhower warned about in his farewell address about an influential Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex.....or in the words of Colin Powell, what I would call "a sinister nexus"

[stepnw1f]

1. A Vote for Bush is A Vote for terrorism. n/t

[AP]

2. Aside: I see Al Qaeda as the other side of the fascist coin Bush is on.

As far as I can tell, Al Q and the Republicans are just two groups representing the interests of billionaires, neither of which is interested in flowing economic and political power down to the people.

[prodigal_green]

3. they're fighting each other

but holding hands under the table.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

6. You'll be interested in next week's Reith lecture

This year they're by Wole Soyinka on "The Climate of Fear" & his final lecture (next week) is called "I am Right; You are Dead":

"When Osama bin Laden declares that the world is divided between believers and non-believers, it is easy to identify the menace of the fanatic mind but, in what other company can we place George Bush when we hear him declare that 'you are either with us or you are on the side of the terrorists'? We fail at our peril to recognize a twin strain of the same fanatic spore that threatens to consume the world in its messianic fires. What could be the role of the 'invisible' religions and world views in tempering the forces that seek to dichotomise the world? "

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2004/lectures.shtml

mp3 of the lecture will be up next week (after Wednesday) & you can listen to the 3 previous lectuers at the link above.

[stellanoir]

4. the first law of energetics is. . .

that conflict only occurs where there is mutually shared culpability.

[Insider]

5. egg on his face means more money in his pocket

some people say bush & his admin is 'screwing up', like they have egg on their face. somehow every time they supposedly get egg on their faces, they end up with MORE money in their pockets, and MORE power. funny how that happens. i should screw up so.

"Remember the Trifecta"