Tuesday, July 12, 2005
The mass casualty attacks of al Qaeda
Bill Roggio has produced a Flash movie that graphically illustrates the time, place and manner of al Qaeda's mass casualty attacks since its formation as a unified organization and declaration of war against the United States in 1998 (if you need a Flash player, you can download one for free here).
The presentation is not intended to capture all terrorist attacks or even all al Qaeda attacks (Chechnya, the Phillippines, Thailand and other lower intensity conflicts are not included, and neither is the war between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs), but to illustrate al Qaeda's capacity to inflict massive casualties all over the world. It is very illuminating.
The movie also demonstrates that the Iraq war is not the "cause" of al Qaeda's terrorism:
The war is global, and it is first and foremost a civil war within the Muslim world. Secondarily, it is a struggle to achieve certain strategic objectives that are profoundly incompatible with Western interests. Al Qaeda has chosen certain battlegrounds -- New York, Washington, London, India, Indonesia, Madrid, Istanbul, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Tanzania, Kenya, and so forth -- and we have chosen certain battlefields: Iraq and Afghanistan among them. Al Qaeda will not give up, so we in the West cannot give up, either, however much our politicians and chattering classes might want to wish away this war.
The presentation is not intended to capture all terrorist attacks or even all al Qaeda attacks (Chechnya, the Phillippines, Thailand and other lower intensity conflicts are not included, and neither is the war between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs), but to illustrate al Qaeda's capacity to inflict massive casualties all over the world. It is very illuminating.
The movie also demonstrates that the Iraq war is not the "cause" of al Qaeda's terrorism:
There have been 30 major mass casualty attacks directed against the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, Tunisia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and North Osetia. 14 of the 30 attacks were conducted prior to the invasion of Iraq, making claims of the occupation of Iraq as a casus belli for al Qaeda’s terrorism to be disingenuous at best. 4,895 people have been killed in these attacks, and 12,345 plus have been wounded. The majority of the countries attacked are Muslim countries. And although not stated, the vast majority of the victims of al Qaeda's violence are Muslims.
The war is global, and it is first and foremost a civil war within the Muslim world. Secondarily, it is a struggle to achieve certain strategic objectives that are profoundly incompatible with Western interests. Al Qaeda has chosen certain battlegrounds -- New York, Washington, London, India, Indonesia, Madrid, Istanbul, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Tanzania, Kenya, and so forth -- and we have chosen certain battlefields: Iraq and Afghanistan among them. Al Qaeda will not give up, so we in the West cannot give up, either, however much our politicians and chattering classes might want to wish away this war.
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