September 14, 2005

AL QAEDA ON THE CHARLES

        Were Joseph Goebbels alive today he'd undoubtedly hold an Ivy League faculty position, heading up a "Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research". Instead, meet Professor Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, "associate director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University." He explains that al Qaeda has been deeply misunderstood by our simple minded, moralistic leaders. Why is everyone so upset about 9-11? After all, "Al Qaeda believes that the citizens of the states with whom it is at war bear a responsibility for the policies of their governments. Such democratization of responsibility rests, it has been argued by bin Laden, in the citizens' ability to elect and dismiss the representatives who make foreign policy decisions on their behalf..." I guess we've somehow missed bin Laden's deep understanding of Democracy. The good Professor continues: "...The best strategy for the United States may well be to acknowledge and address the collective reasons in which Al Qaeda anchors its acts of force. Al Qaeda has been true to its word in announcing and implementing its strategy for over a decade. It is likely to be true to its word in the future and cease hostilities against the United States, and indeed bring an end to the war it declared in 1996 and in 1998, in return for some degree of satisfaction regarding its grievances..."
        How unfortunate that we didn't have scholars like Professor Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou to help us deal with Hitler. After all, if we'd only offered "some degree of satisfaction" to him we might have had peace. Oh, we just remembered, the West did make such an offering--Czechoslovakia, and sure enough we had 'peace in our time'.