Al Qaeda

[kwicky]

What do they stand for? What do the West need to do to satisfy their demands? Is a war with Al Qaeda winnable? If we pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan would this satisfy them? Is there a peaceful solution?

[jno]

Isolamic supremacy; fade away; there won't be a 'war', they have no army; no; maybe

[blu3wave]

I was watching a documentary on Tv and I think Al Qaeda want Western influences out of Islamic countries, and USA to butt out of the Middle Eastern politics as well.
Pulling out of Iraq, Afghanistan would be a goo start but there are large US army bases all over MiddleEast that Al Qaeda see as a threat ...
I don't think USA is ever going to concede to Al Qaeda firstly, and to pull out its troops from the Middle East would mean less power in that region and cosequently, Oil aswell as the politics of that region.... would the USA give that up??

No, never going to happen, so I don't see a peaceful solution in the near future unfortunately.

[Loosehead]

their demands are simple: world wide implementation of sharia law. Death or conversion for the non muslim, death to the infidel. Pulling out of Iraq etc won't make a difference to the game plan at all

[blu3wave]

I don't really know what Al Qaeda's ultimate goal is and neither do I agree with much of their ideology but just wanted to say, that I think AlQaeda is a by product of the West (mainly USA) meddling and manipulating world politics for its own vested interests......
The Iraq war being a perfect example of it.

[China Doll]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_quada

Think they've ^^^^ got it covered. Although some bits are disputed apparently.

They're not an army so you can't go to war with them. That's rubbish. So it's not a question of winning exactly.

As to the rest of it. I couldn't answer.

[NikkiB]

One demand al qaeda make is for Spain to be "returned" to the caliphate.
Unfortunately Spain is not a library book and no-one has the right to decide it's fate other than the Spanish people. If they wanted Spain to be sharia based, it would be.
Pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan wouldn't make much difference to Al Qeada's campaign. The "plight" of having those two countries exposed to democratic reforms have added a few more morons onto Bin Laden's mailing list but I believe have simply given certain radicals the courage to come out of the closet.
As for a peaceable solution, well, Islam is currently squabbling with the whole world in one shape or form. It's having it's Inquisition phase. I see no real solution other than waiting for the status quo to change and allowing the radicalism to burn itself out. Otherwise moderate Muslims will be caught in the crossfire or forced to choose.

[MustafaTickl]

Al-Qaeda is designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland. The United States government is engaged in a military and intelligence campaign known as the War on Terrorism with the aim of dismantling al-Qaeda and killing or capturing its operatives. Here is the current leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.

[maxximus]

nuff said, http://beyondthepunchline.blogspot.com/2007/07 /us-report-indicates-increased-al-qaeda.html

[NJOK]

Almost every credible expert on Islamism agrees on this:

Al Qaeda is is not a homogenous organisation. It has no hierarchy. It has no mission. It has no cells. It has no identifiable structure.

It is the name given to Islamist terrorists, operating independently, who seek funding from Osama Bin Laden. They are not answerable to him or each other.

We talk of them as a group because, in an early 90s, the US attempted to prosecute Bin Laden for the bombing of US embassies in Africa. To do this, it relied on laws (created to combat the Mafia) under which an organisation's leader could be convicted for crimes commited by people under his leadership. The US tried to paint Al Qaeda as a hierarchial organsation with a clear chain of command. Which is fiction.

Islamists didn't even use the name Al Qaeda until 2002.

So, Al Qaeda doesn't stand for anything as such. There is no 'them'.

[China Doll]

And yet there's a 'them and us.'

How odd.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Jason Burke's book "al Qaeda" is well worth reading to find out what they're really about, rather the lazy tabloid views you normally hear spouted.

[kwicky]

I suspect that the USA's domination of the planet has greatly added to the conflict. Rather than a surge of troops more could be achieved by a tactical withdrawal not only from Iraq but elsewhere. With their intelligent weaponry it is no longer necessary for them to set up bases on foreign lands and impose western democracy and ideology.