I agree on some points but disagree on others. The movement that is behind this form of terrorism has yet to formulate its political ambitions. I agree that globally it cannot take America on but it can still express it tradition and its demands. I think we are dealing with a movement that has no real tradition as yet so it falls back into religion as its only way to articulate its beliefs. As a result there can be no communication.Argyleyn wrote: Actually, what these groups think is irrelevant. The issue at hand is that they are supported or tolerated by a wide part of the middle eastern populace and that is where their strength lies. In a country whose citizens were hostile towards them they couldn't really last in the long term and would propably be arrested. They can freely wander around the middle east though and gather their resources and recruits there simply because even in an extreme way they represent a widespread wish for vengeance against the foreign oppressors. Fighting the Americans directly isn't an option, the firepower advantage they have is ridiculous Their only solution is performing desperate actions, which sometimes work, like in Madrid.
The issues that cause that support is the Western policy in the middle east, which has a long history of invasions and direct interventions against the popular will.The biggest problems at hand are the Iraq war and the Palestinian issue. Unless these are stopped or solved, i can't see how the situation can change.
Tbh, the same thing happened in France during the occupation of Algiers, bombs were going off left and right in Paris. How many bombs go off now that Algeria has achieved -real- independance? Weren't there mad fundamentalists who would like to blow up France? Yes, but they lost any real support, without which achieving a plan is impossible.
It is misled to blame communities for supporting the groups we are talking about that implies a kind of hidden romantic view of communities as cohesive etc. So if we have to justify things with those references it would make more sense to qualify it with a better sense of the sorts of conflicts the so called communities experience.
As for your perspective Mojo of course there is no centre to the world, no real concrete base upon which to have a foundation for your views. I subscribe to that. However could you please explain that to the people with the bombs. Because they sure as hell seem to have a fairly strong reason for doing what they do.