Anniversary

Cian co015d5200 at blueyonder.co.uk
Wed Sep 18 11:16:54 PDT 2002


Gordon Fitch said:
>
> I don't see much evidence that bombing Afghanistan stopped al-Qaeda,
> except maybe in Afghanistan. Terrorism isn't conventional war, and
> while destroying a lot of stuff may defeat a nation-state, it may
> have no effect on terrorists, or actually advance their program.

It certainly damaged them. They lost their host country, many of their training camps and were forced to flee to Pakistan where the US (or more probably Pakistani intelligence) has had some success in capturing some of their enemies. It clearly wasn't a decisive blow, but its too early to say whether this has advanced Al-Quaida's program. A huge part of Al-Quaida's power came from their mystique and seeming invulnerability. Now that they have lost this, they may have lost much of their appeal to the disaffected youth of the Middle East. Nobody much wants to join a gang of losers.



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