From the vantage point of al Qaeda its members are freedom fighters: free, that is, to chase the enemy from Islamic territory so the organization can in turn build a fascist theocracy controlled by a fundamentalist clergy, underpinned by permanent mercenaries bent on ethnic cleansing on behalf of Islamic uncompromising purity. Even if it succeeded in chasing the infidels from the Middle East, sub Sahara regions and parts of Asia it would not stop there because Islam is earth’s only true religion and law — nay, the only religion and law — all else being infidels, and lawless.
This terrorist network, however, is a misnomer because it is in fact an organization without a country. The closest nation to it is Iran and that is breaking down rapidly and will soon be another Turkey or Egypt. Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists are actually alienated and trapped in a cycle of destruction that is going nowhere. However, their distaste for life makes them even more dangerous, since in the end, if given the slightest window of opportunity to get hold of weapons of mass destruction they will use them without hesitation and happily take with them the world’s infidel population.
A nation, however roguish, clings to the primacy of survival; the many crises of the cold war showed that in the final analysis global war was unthinkable. Even a brutal dictator like Saddam, not unlike Mao or Stalin, would never have entertained the thought, for fear of the total horror of reprisal. Not so with the Islamic thugs round the world: they would love to be in the position to magnify the twin towers disaster a thousand times over. It is imperative that the intelligence agencies of the civilized world join together in rounding up rogue suppliers of these deadly weapons, to preempt worldwide disease or the feared mushroom cloud.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: April 3, 2004.