Originally posted by Stringer
Gunslinger,
Simple question....Who has proved that they have the ability to strike us on our soil?
And follow-up question, is he in custody?
Answer question 1 and you know who the threat is....answer question 2 and you know why I feel the way I do.
In reguards to the first post, yes we caused this front to open up. Our invasion of Iraq mobilized every muslim with radical feelings to pack up and head out at maybe there only chances at shooting anc killing Americans.
Tragic or strategic I can' argue that it wasn't our fault. We started this battle in Iraq wich is even more of a reason to me to finish the job there. Alot of people ask how OBL fits in to all of this and really he doesn't. I don't know were he is and what his capabilities are but I am certain that he is just one elment of the threat we are facing.
If after 9/11 we had captured or killed Bin Laden somone surley would have replaced him so IMHO he is just one aspect, a big one, but just one in this global war.
What scares me the most (and this will answer your capabilities question) is if we fail in Iraq and it turns into a radical islamofasicits regiem. Yes this would be our fault as well, but it hasn't happened yet. If it does happen, or we choose to ignore the global spread of islamo fascists they will one day be at our doorstep and powerfull as ever. I look to the bombings in Europe this year as proof. As tragic as they are they stand to me as a harsh lesson that these people cannot be dealt with or appeased.
I also look to the goals of our enemy and they clearly state they want to establish an Islamic caliphate on a global scale. Yes I think we need to capture or kill bin ladin, and I think we are still vigeroulsy searching for him. but to ignore the expansion of radical islam is to let them become a bigger enemy to defeat. IMHO Iraq is the first modern battlefield in this war and we are winning it. Terrorist in Iraq are getting desparate, they are attacking their own and engaging in civil war even against other sects of muslims outside of Iraq. It's tragic what they do but it's in a way good for us because every kid, every wedding party that terrorists kill is less sympothy for their cause recieved.
Anyhow that's just how I've been thinking as of late
EDIT: here's a pretty good write up:
Their Strategic Plan is essentially as follows:
1. Remove the Western presence from Iraq.
-- Kill even just one American a day. Americans will eventually tire and give up. They are weak and have no stomach for this fight.
2. Eliminate Western influence in the Middle East.
-- Turn Iraq into an Islamic state ruled by the Sharia.
3. Eliminate the apostate goverments in the Middle East.
-- Especially regain Saudi Arabia. Disestablish the House of Fahd. Wahhabism will rule Saudi Arabia. Then go after the others.
4. Cut off oil to the United States, and use the remaining oil to make other countries--and thus also the United States--compliant.
5. Eliminate the entire Nation of Israel.
-- This does not just mean "take it over" or "create a Palestinian State." It appears to mean to exterminate every Jewish man, woman and child.
6. Establish the Dar al-Islam (literally, House of Submission) from Africa to the Stans to Indonesia.
-- Re-establish the greatness of the Islamic world from about 700-1300 A.D.
7. Spread the Dar al-Islam across the world…into Africa…across Asia…into Europe…over to South America…and eventually even the United States.
The enemy is a Global Network. They communicate across about 4000 websites. They are not Hierarchical…they are a Franchise.
Here's an excerpt of what he wrote recently (9 July 05) in a letter to al-Zarqawi:
"If our intended goal in this age is the establishment of a caliphate in the manner of the Prophet and if we expect to establish its state predominantly - according to how it appeals to us - in the heart of the Islamic world, then your efforts and sacrifices, God permitting, are a large step directly towards that goal.
So we must think for a long time about our next steps and how we want to attain it, and it is my humble opinion that the Jihad in Iraq requires several incremental goals:
The first stage: expel the Americans from Iraq.
The second stage: Establish an Islamic authority or amirate, then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of a caliphate over as much territory as you can to spread its power in Iraq, i.e., in Sunni areas, is in order to fill the void stemming from the departure of the Americans, immediately upon their exit and before un-Islamic forces attempt to fill this void, whether those whom the Americans will leave behind them, or those among the un-Islamic forces who will ... jump at taking power.
There is no doubt that this amirate will enter into a fierce struggle with the foreign infidel forces, and those supporting them among the local forces, to put it in a state of constant preoccupation with defending itself, to make it impossible for it to establish a stable state which could proclaim a caliphate, and to keep the Jihadist groups in a constant state of war, until these forces find a chance to annihilate them.
The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq.
The fourth stage: It may coincide with what came before: the clash with Israel, because Israel was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity.
My raising this idea - I don't claim that it's infallible - is only to stress something extremely important. And it is that the mujahedeen must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal. We will return to having the secularists and traitors holding sway over us. Instead, their ongoing mission is to establish an Islamic State, and defend it, and for every generation to hand over the banner to the one after it until the Hour of Resurrection.
