Salon.com : The real war on terrorism
April 24, 2002
Salon.com 'The real war on terrorism' Robert Young Pelton, author of "The World's Most Dangerous Places," says the U.S. military has killed "thousands and thousands" of people in Afghanistan, al-Qaida is a myth and the WTC was brought down by a "Mickey Mouse" outfit.
Interesting article. Don't know if I believe all of it, but it is an interesting critique of the War by someone neither on the Left or the Right.
The one piece in the article that does strike a cord is that Pelton contends that Al-Queda is essentially the same catch-all phrase as "The Mafia," used to give cohesion to something that essentially isn't. He states that the WTC wasn't brought down by a highly organized and financed international conspiracy run out of the back caves of Afghanistan, but a loose, "Mickey Mouse" collection of dissatisfied radicals living among us, who with some money, some knowledge and a whole lot of moxie were able to inflict such horrendous damage.
I'd rather belive that Al-Queda is a huge conspiracy out of a James Bond novel. Kill Osama, or a few other leaders, and the whole thing will wither and die. I'm afraid though that it's not going to be that easy, that Al-Queda is more or less a symbolic rallying point and not a top down organizational structure, useful for a lot of lost, aimless and violent men as justification for their own homicidal rages. If that's the case, then we're going to be in for a battle as old as humankind itself.
Posted by Jody at April 24, 2002 10:12 AM