What is wrong with this picture? Check out this article by Tony Karon ( http://www.globalpolicy.org/wtc/terrorism/2004/0317qaeda.htm ) writing, after the Madrid bombings, about the growing Al Qaeda threat.


Where next? Italy, France, Australia, Japan and others are tightening up security procedures; the New York City Police Department, mindful of the vulnerability of the city's mass transit system, has sent experts to Madrid to study the mechanics of the train bombings that killed more than 200 commuters there.

“Where next” should have been asked after the embassy bombings, the USS Cole, the Bali bombing, Turkey bombings and many others. Why did they need another reminder like Madrid? There is no "where next" – it is everywhere next!

"Attack on London is Inevitable," screamed one British headline on Wednesday, quoting British security officials.

Replace London with any capital or major city you want

How then to reconcile the apparent contradiction of bin Laden and his lieutenants being on the ropes in western Pakistan, while the deadly shadow cast over the West by his movement grows longer? The answer lies in the nature of al-Qaeda itself, and how it has evolved in response to the U.S. war on terror.

Yes, that’s right blame the US. Maybe if the rest of the world helped more, quicker and in concert with the US they would not be able to evolve.

Last week, CIA director George Tenet told the Senate that al-Qaeda has morphed into a loose and expanding association of regional terror cells linked less by chains of command and communication than by a common vision of jihad against the U.S.

See, blame the US again. You see, Al Qaeda’s tactic is an old military one – divide and conquer. Get the rest of the world against your most powerful enemy – the US. Remember, Al Qaeda’s goal (you did know they had one – right?) is to turn every country into an Islamic fundamentalist state. So the common vision is jihad against the entire western world not just the US.

When terror outrages from Madrid and Casablanca, through Istanbul and Baghdad, to Bali and Jakarta, are described as the work of "al-Qaeda," the name describes a broad franchise of terrorist jihad against the U.S. and its allies adopted by scores of local Islamist groups

The US and its allies to blame again. What about the recent threats to France and to Germany’s president during his recent travels? Or, are they are allies again?

Diverse groups, some of them launched by veterans of the Afghan camps, others entirely local may be bound together less by organizational loyalty to bin Laden than by a commitment to the ideas he personifies — global jihad against the U.S. and its allies.

Anybody keeping count how many times it is the US who is to blame? It is global jihad against the western world! Mr Karon, have you ever read any of Bin Laden’s or Al Qaeda’s statements?

Even such establishment voices as London's prestigious International Institute of Strategic Studies, which supported the Iraq war and hosted President Bush's during his recent state visit to Britain, concludes that the hostility sparked by the Iraq war has substantially increased the growth potential for jihadi terror groups. Rather than isolating the jihadis in Arab public opinion and starving them of support, the effect of the war has been to move their view of the U.S. closer to the mainstream.

Really? Then why do over 70 percent of the Iraqi people in a recent ABC poll feel better off today the before the war? Why are we seeing anti-government protests in Syria and Iran? Something that was unheard of before. Why is Libya getting rid of it’s weapons of mass destruction and renouncing Al Qaeda? Why was a recent hardline Islamic government voted out in favor of a more moderate one?

Now that al-Qaeda and its supporters are directly attacking Europe's cities rather than simply using them as staging areas, European leaders are looking to ramp up their own efforts to fight terror.

Great, just great! Three years too late! What about 9/11 did they not understand? So 9/11 wasn’t good enough for them; they had to have their own 9/11 in Madrid. “Ramp up their own efforts” – yeah, so long as it was perceived as a US problem no need for Europe to do anything.

But as the Spanish election result shows, this may put them more sharply at odds with the Bush administration. That's because there's a widely held belief among the Europeans that while police and intelligence cooperation across the Atlantic (and across the Mediterranean, with Arab security services) has been highly effective in eliminating al-Qaeda cells, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has been not only ineffective, but actually counterproductive in the fight against terrorism.

Ok, so now he has the Europeans as well as Al Qaeda blaming the US. Nice one Mr. Karon. Terrorism would have continued to grow and spread without the Iraq war. Remember the Islamic fundamentalist goal – destroy western civilization and return to the Stone Age. Every time I see or hear this lame excuse that the Iraq war is to blame for increasing terrorism I want to scream – 9/11 happened before the war! Wake up people! And, if, as you just said, the European leaders are looking to ramp up their own efforts to fight terror, how would they know what is productive or counterproductive?

"Terrorism is now more powerful than ever before," he says. And most European leaders believe the al-Qaeda phenomenon will not be defeated until the anti-U.S. grievances in the Arab world on which it feeds have been addressed.

Which grievances would that be Mr Karon? The return of “all” Islamic lands? They claim many countries. The creation of Islamic fundamentalist governments around the world? The return to the Stone Age? No women’s rights?

And March 11 in Madrid has given the Europeans a greater claim to a leading role in defining the West's response to terrorism

Why did it take March 11 to get the Europeans motivated? They have set back for 3 years and let the terrorist operate from their soil. Spain was the last meeting place of the 9/11 terrorist. Hamburg, Germany played a key role in the attack. Britain has long been a safe base for them. The Madrid terrorist phoned Britain many times just days before the bombings. France has recently arrested many terrorist suspects.

So, Mr Karon, in answer to “Why the Qaeda Threat Is Growing” is because we let it! We play the blame game, bury our heads in the sand and hope it won’t happen in my neighborhood. Because writers like you join the blame America gravy train to make a few dollars. Shame on you and the people who write like you.