Why do you hate al-Qaeda?

[quasi-modo]

Interesting... the UN is corrupt, eh? It did a pretty good job in the first gulf war. Perhaps it's corrupt because it disagreed with the US...

The estimated $21.5 billion in the Oil-For-Food scam disagrees with that statment.

Exactly what I was alluding to.

Who is going to want to make war on someone they are doing business with? Saddam was not using that UN cash to help the people of Iraq, we know that much.

[CrAz3D]

They haven't hurt me personally, but that isn't required in order for me to dislike them. I think hate is too strong a word: I do not 'hate' anybody. I think al-Qaeda, and terrorist groups in general, are misguided. Their actions, which are perhaps logical when viewed within the structure of the cultures that prompt them, are nonetheless evil and unjustifiable.

Of course they're misguided, they have religious awakenings & say that *GOD* told them to kill Westerners because they were short skirts.  If they can hate us for wear clothes why can't we hate them for killing us?

It is also my strong belief that the solution to this problem cannot, in general, be a military one: although small, specific, targeted, precise military actions may be useful as part of a larger strategy. It is pretty well understood by most, and fairly obvious, that killing terrorists and/or the civilians that inevitably get in the way, only creates more terrorists in the longrun. I think that by trying to solve the problem of international terrorism militarily, one will only worsen the problem.

Kill the people that start/follow/& develope the idea then there won't be an idea left.

Think of the situation in reverse for a moment, if you will: Imagine, setting aside morality, reason, or justification, that the US had, for some reason it considered sufficient, attacked a foreign power. Imagine that that power had responded in force, and was now occupying the USA. Would you not take up arms? As more and more people were, for whatever reason, killed by the occupiers, would you not become ever more angry and ever more likely to resort to force? This situation seems logical to me. If the occupied country were mine, I believe I would become involved in whatever kind of resistence was available.

Al Qaeda hit first, Afghanistan supported them, why not invade & stop the murders?

Supporters of the War on Terrorism will no doubt say that this analagy is not representative of the current state of affairs in the world, and to an extent, I agree, however: In the minds of the many of the people that oppose the West, this is exactly the situation. Whether or not they are correct in their views is both irreconcilable and irrelevant. That is how they think. Thus, military action alone will never accomplish our goal. It will only increase anti-American, anti-West sentiment.

IRRELEVANT!?...it is TOTALLY relevant.  They kill us because of what they think, you must be pretty dense not to realise that.  Why can't we kill them because they supress women & "wear funny hats"?...we would be totally justified in doing since we BELIEVE that you shouldn't supress women.

[Arta]

Kill the people that start/follow/& develope the idea then there won't be an idea left.

That's just fairly transparently wrong. You can't kill an idea. This is both obvious, and demonstrated by history on numerous occasions .

Al Qaeda hit first, Afghanistan supported them, why not invade & stop the murders?

Because, as I have explained in some detail, it will simply worsen the problem in the longrun. See the previous point.

IRRELEVANT!?...it is TOTALLY relevant.  They kill us because of what they think, you must be pretty dense not to realise that.  Why can't we kill them because they supress women & "wear funny hats"?...we would be totally justified in doing since we BELIEVE that you shouldn't supress women.

I'm not sure you've really appreciated what I was trying to say. The soundness of their arguments is clearly irrelevant when considering the appropriate response to violent fundamentalism. It is irrelevant because we will never convince them that their views are 'wrong'. This differs from most problems, which are based in logic and which have logical solutions, for example, trade, border disputes, and the like. Logic is of no use when dealing with a fanatical enemy.

PS: I don't really think it's reasonable to kill someone for wearing a funny hat