Nov 24 2008
Could Withdrawl Actually Work?
Before you get all riled up and call me a sissy for purposing this, consider what I have to say. I think that withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan might be the best thing we can do and actually help us defeat Al-Qaeda. The reason I say this is because without a foreign occupying force, who can they attack? Al-Qaeda would no longer have a “legitimate” target to go after. With the United States gone, the only people they could attack is civilians, which we all know they have no problem doing.
The excuse to kill innocent people in the name fighting to protect Islam would be eliminated. If they continued to conduct suicide bombings against fellow Muslims after we left, I think sooner or later the population as a whole would turn on them. This has been proven in Iraq with the Awakening councils. The United States had been fighting the Sunni insurgency for years and making little to no progress.
The Sunni insurgents fighting the United States eventually turned their guns on Al-Qaeda because they didn’t approve of the strict brand of Islam that they practiced or the brutal tactics they used. My point here is people can rise up and take care of their own problems if given the opportunity. The violence in Iraq has fallen to the lowest levels since the war, all because the people got sick and tired of it.
The ideology that Al-Qaeda follows has a very narrow following outside their ranks because it runs counter to the tenets Islam stands for. Their ideology has not spread like wildfire because most people in the Muslim world do not want to kill fellow Muslims. I assume they want to live in peace and be left alone. Removing our forces from Iraq and Afghanistan eliminates any claim of legitimacy by Al-Qaeda and therefore makes them irrelevant. The War on Terror and our actions only serve to bolster their propaganda.
The unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan, Syria and Somalia only plays into the hands of Al-Qaeda because they can use this as a recruiting tool to gain more members and stage more attacks. Take away this propaganda, what are they left with? Nothing. No “evil America” to fight, they would be seen as crazy, extreme pariahs for which they are. They wouldn’t be viewed as the ”vangaurds” of Islam as they claim to be. This is evident by their popularity ratings in the Muslim world. Their popularity since 9/11 has dropped dramatically in the Muslim world. http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/547.php?lb=btis&pnt=547&nid=&id=
Formulating a different strategy to combat this terror group is they way we are going to defeat them. Bullets and bombs alone are not enough. I think a robust investment in our intelligence agency and patience will go a long way in vanquishing our foe. The Muslim world as a whole has a part in this too. They will need to take a long look in the mirror and think about what kind of society to they want to have. If they think that the status quo is acceptable, Islamic extremism will be a increasing part of society, which will ultimately destroy the social fabric of the Muslim community worldwide. If they reform their institutions now there is no reason why the Middle East couldn’t be a place where democracy and religious tolerance thrive and prosper. Don’t forget to answer the question of the week!
