<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Leigh M:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>"What if AQ is just saying: Fuck YOUR definition of democracy,<BR>our culture & societies have worked just as well as yours, and<BR>you'll leave us alone now... and we might have to kill a few of<BR>you to impress you that we mean it, and a certain percentage<BR>of muslims in every country in the world believes that...<BR><BR>Including Iraqis."</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I hope that this is a parody, for your sake, and that I am making a mistake in replying to it.</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Leigh imagines Osama bin Laden as a kind of Jim Belushi, saying 'FUCK YOU', which just shows that he is projecting his own western adultescent angst onto Al Qaida. </FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Piling error upon error, he imagines that Al Qaida want to defend 'our culture and societies' when they have been at war with most of the Arab and Muslim world since their inception. Their published ideology promises to overthrow Arab 'culture and society', which is corrupt. </FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Third error, Leigh imagines that Al Qaida aim to represent the Arab world 'leave us alone now', whereas they denounce the overwhelming majority of muslims as not true muslims.</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>So the question what if... is already absurd because the if is so palpably not the case.</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>The meaning then would be Al Qaida is saying Fuck YOUR definition of democracy, with its absurd proposition that people should rule themselves instead of being ruled by God, and more people should die to stop men presuming to challenge Gods law. And if that were the case, I would say, and do say that the world is better off without Al Qaida, and look forward to the day when Arab society succeeds in annihilating it.</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Leigh puts this argument into the mouths of 'a certain percentage of muslims in every country... including Iraqis'. What percentage? ten, five? What about the far greater percentage of Iraqis who oppose Al Qaida, such as the Kurds, or Shia, or Communists, or Saddamists?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><BR><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>'Until the western world can 'fess up to the fact that "acculturation" <BR>doesn't "globalize" any better than "the export of democracy", there <BR>will be war.. '</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The true voice of the impotent nihilist, too spineless to change his own society, longing for the saviour from the East to sweep away all the corruption. Dreaming of a war that he is not man enough to fight himself, dreaming of daddy bin Laden saving him from the bully Bush or Blair.</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>