It didn’t hit me after the attack on the USS Cole when stationed in Yemen. I didn’t ask it after the first World Trade Center attack nor 9/11. I didn’t ask this pertinent question after the 2004 Madrid train bombing or the 1993 killing of US soldiers in Somalia, the 1996 truck bombing at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the shoe bomber, the 2002 bombings in a synagogue in Tunisia, night club bombings in Bali, suicide attack on a hotel in Mombasa Kenya, truck bombs in London, car bombs in Istanbul or when nearly 100 people died when two women suicide bombers, who are believed to be mentally impaired, attack crowded pet markets in eastern Baghdad.
None of this prompted me to examine this question until some kid was willing to strap on a pair of exploding underwear and attempt to bring down a plane on it’s way to Detroit Michigan (As if Detroit has not been hit enough by the economic bomb.). What the heck does Al Qaeda want? Does anyone really know? In all this madness of color coded terror alerts or cavity searches in order to get on an airplane ride at a street fair, does the everyday person even know what they want? I mean, our lives are constantly on the line, we should know something, right?
I can tell you what Hitler wanted, Charles Manson wanted, even Jim Jones. But, Al Qaeda? Who the heck knows? I’m serious. If anybody out there knows what these folks want, lay it on me. What is it, money? Land? A Mercedes Benz? What? And don’t bring me some ideology dug up from a twisted interpretation of what it is to be Muslim. If there is one thing I can tell you, all religions rooted in spirituality are also rooted in love and respect life. So leave that back woods profiling off the table and tell me what they want. If you go into a store to buy bread and you walk out with a loaf of bread, it’s clear why you went in and when you walk out with the bread, it’s clear that you achieved your goal. So… what’s up with Al Qaeda? What is their loaf of bread and how do they know when they have it? I couldn’t begin to tell you and I consider myself pretty good at these things.
I do know one thing, if Al Qaeda and it’s many splinter groups’ goal is merely the destruction of all things Western or anything and anybody who does not adhere to their ever changing doctrine, then what they claim is a Holy War is really murder. There are casualties in war and that is the reason the world strives for peace. It is why countries do not partake in it lightly. If it is a case of murder as it appears, then I am ashamed of the world body. As time has moved forward and technology has connected us as never before, it should be abundantly clear that we are separate nations, but are one as a world family. It is outrageous for members of the world family to allow, accept, hide, aid or sit idly by while supposedly someone sits off in a cave somewhere with the intent to massively kill for the sake of killing (Wait, is he even still alive?). What happens to America, happens to Russia, Spain, Italy Denmark, Brazil, it happens to all. These lessons were learned when America itself was reluctant to enter World War II and ended up having a small island called Hawaii bombed as a result.
If Osama Bin Laden would have robbed the World Bank and the amount of money he took was large enough, we would have watched his capture on CNN ten years ago. There would have been no place he could hide. Every country would have been in on this massive manhunt to the end. But alas, Al Queda hasn’t taken money… only lives. So in the end, maybe the question isn’t about what the heck Al Qaeda wants. Maybe it’s about what the world is willing to accept.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Touché… And very well witten.
Thank you. Something about a War On Terror struck me. Aren't folks on both sides of a war supposed to know what the other is fighting for? How do you know you've won a war if you don't know what you want?
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