Barbelith Underground > Switchboard > Terror Outrage Foiled

With regards to the PM, I'm just waiting for a reply back from redtara before I either post it on the thread or simply pass it via PM to interested parties.

Evil Scientist, you misunderstand what I said. There is a war. There are opposing sides. Both sides need to be clearly identified along with their objectives. But so far, the terrorists' goals have only been speculated on - it's not like anybody from the Western world sat down with terrorist leaders to verify what they want and decide if a cease-fire can be negociated.

I disagree QP, Al-Quaeda is one example of a media-savvy extremeist group that is very open about what their goals are. Their objectives and goals have not simply been speculated on as they constantly send out messages via extremeist websites and media services about their intentions.

You are right though that, as far as I am aware, there has not been a public attempt to attempt a ceasefire between the two sides in this conflict. Although, the AQ press releases often specifically mention a country by name and say that they will stop attacks on that country if it, for instance, pulls it's troops out of Iraq.

Although it is a completely different situation the conflict in Northern Ireland does show that constant violence is not the way to solve problems. Only when both sides show a willingness to talk can any progress be made.

Are there terrorists? There's obviously someone who killed all these people.

Well the general consensus seems to be that there are extremeist groups which are willing and able to perform attacks considered by many to be acts of terrorism. These extremeist groups are not shy about claiming responsibility for those acts.

If there aren't terrorist groups then what else could they be? Why are the extremeist groups claiming responsibility for these acts? Are they simply being manipulated or is absolutely everything smoke and mirrors, or is it somewhere between the two? There must be at least some tangible proof that this is what is happening mustn't there?

Are they any good at being terrorists? Personally, I think whoever is doing this doesn't really want to put that much pressure on western governments, as they would adopt better terrorist strategies, and I don't think the terrorists - whoever they may be - are stupid.

and

Any terrorist worth his salt would not exclusively focus on executing large-scale attacks. These require a lot of preparation and manpower, and preparing for them draws too much attention. Whoever really wants to destabilize a government would rather use multiple and random small-scale attacks. Blowing up a couple of bombs here and there, in front of a grocery store or at the downtown mall, is much more efficient in creating a climate of terror than what we've seen so far. Such attacks are much easier to prepare and successfully pull off, and they scare people more efficiently. Knowing that a car could explode next to you as you do your shopping, because it keeps happening all over the place, is much more scary than ponctual attacks that cause more damage but happen only rarely. Most terrorism that is not related to Al-Qaeda typically follows this strategy, usually quite efficiently.

My answer would be that you are right in a manner of speaking. A constant campaign of car-bombings, etc would be much more effective. In fact that is what is occurring in Iraq. However the main players on the Coalition side of the fence have established and experienced security services in place in their home countries which arguably makes an extended campaign much more risky to do effectively than an occasional large-scale attack.

Destabilising the government is not the stated aim of extremeist groups such as AQ. They are not revolutionaries. As I said earlier AQ's stated aim is to reduce the influence of the West in Islamic countries. One would say that the attacks that have been performed since 2001 (including the September 11th attacks of that year) have been massively successful as they have provoked an overly-aggressive neo-con government (which believes peace can only come through force of arms) into wildly striking out against various countries (including one which had absolutely nothing to do with the extremeists until the invasion). They have successfully begun polarising the Islamic populations of the world against Western governments, who are themselves also helping this process with more and more restrictive anti-terror laws.

You think the Western governments aren't under pressure? I disagree.