winterbadger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
winterbadger) wrote2007-01-24 05:08 pm
winterbadger) wrote2007-01-24 05:08 pm
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Scheuer on AQ, OBL, and the GWOT
I just ran across this RFE interview in the process of looking for something else. I really can't recommend enough reading what Michael Scheuer has to say about al-Qaeda, the US and Pakistan, and the practice of renditions.
He doesn't have good things to say about either party's politicians, nor should he:
American political leaders on both sides of the aisle have really not come to grips yet, five years later, with what this war is about. They continue to say that bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and its allies are focused on destroying America and its democracy, its freedom, [its] gender equality. And really this war has very, very little to do with any of that. It has to do with what the West and the United States do in the Islamic world.
he explains
The primary goal of Al-Qaeda and the movement it has tried to inspire around the world has been to create Islamic governments in the Islamic world that govern according to their religion. And bin Laden's view on this is that those governments -- the government of Egypt, the government of Saudi Arabia, the government of Jordan, Algeria, right down the line -- only survive because the United States protects them, and Europe protects them. Either with money, diplomatic and political support, or military protection.
And bin Laden's goal has been to simply hurt the United States enough to force us to look at home, to take care of things here, and thereby prevent us from supporting those governments, which he -- and I think the vast majority of Muslims -- regard as oppressive police states.
Once America is removed from that sort of support, Al-Qaeda intends to focus on removing those governments, eliminating Israel, and the third step, further down the road: settling scores with what the Sunni world regards as heretics in the Shi'ite part of the Islamic world. So his vision for the world, and the vision they're pursuing, is a very clear and orderly one, at least from their perspective.
and as for the "we've got to fight them in Iraq so as not to fight them at home" argument:
...we just don't have leaders with the courage to stand up and understand that it's our presence more than anything else in the Islamic world that motivates the enemy, and Iraq was really a turning point in the war on Al-Qaeda and its allies.
I'm not at all an expert on Iraq or whatever threat was posed by [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein. But the sad reality of it is that the invasion of Iraq turned Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden from a man and an organization into a philosophy and a movement. And now we're faced with an Islamic militancy around the world that is far greater than it was on [September 11, 2001,] and almost certainly durable enough to sustain an eventual loss of Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Those are the central parts, but if you have time, read the whole thing.
He doesn't have good things to say about either party's politicians, nor should he:
American political leaders on both sides of the aisle have really not come to grips yet, five years later, with what this war is about. They continue to say that bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and its allies are focused on destroying America and its democracy, its freedom, [its] gender equality. And really this war has very, very little to do with any of that. It has to do with what the West and the United States do in the Islamic world.
he explains
The primary goal of Al-Qaeda and the movement it has tried to inspire around the world has been to create Islamic governments in the Islamic world that govern according to their religion. And bin Laden's view on this is that those governments -- the government of Egypt, the government of Saudi Arabia, the government of Jordan, Algeria, right down the line -- only survive because the United States protects them, and Europe protects them. Either with money, diplomatic and political support, or military protection.
And bin Laden's goal has been to simply hurt the United States enough to force us to look at home, to take care of things here, and thereby prevent us from supporting those governments, which he -- and I think the vast majority of Muslims -- regard as oppressive police states.
Once America is removed from that sort of support, Al-Qaeda intends to focus on removing those governments, eliminating Israel, and the third step, further down the road: settling scores with what the Sunni world regards as heretics in the Shi'ite part of the Islamic world. So his vision for the world, and the vision they're pursuing, is a very clear and orderly one, at least from their perspective.
and as for the "we've got to fight them in Iraq so as not to fight them at home" argument:
...we just don't have leaders with the courage to stand up and understand that it's our presence more than anything else in the Islamic world that motivates the enemy, and Iraq was really a turning point in the war on Al-Qaeda and its allies.
I'm not at all an expert on Iraq or whatever threat was posed by [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein. But the sad reality of it is that the invasion of Iraq turned Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden from a man and an organization into a philosophy and a movement. And now we're faced with an Islamic militancy around the world that is far greater than it was on [September 11, 2001,] and almost certainly durable enough to sustain an eventual loss of Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Those are the central parts, but if you have time, read the whole thing.
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Basically, I will need to earn £35,000 p.a. within at least one 12-month period (or £32,000 if I finish my M.A. long-distance, which would cost $7,000+) in order to qualify for FLR under HSMP. That's *possible*, but not likely unless I get really well established really fast and get 1,800+ hours of decently paid work over 12 months.
That site is really funny, BTW, when the new rules came out last year, they posted that video interview, whihc is kind of hilarious. Watch it sometime for comic relief--the South Asian dandy they interview is quite swishy.