Sadat was assassinated in 1981, pretty early in the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. And good news - the Saudis are throwing the US military out and beginning democratic reforms, in an effort to undermine the power of the Wahhabist clerics over the Saudi government. 3? At 01:14 PM 2/13/2003 -0500, Steve Smith wrote:
Keith, I know you're being contentious and hypothetical here. But let's spell it out, okay? Among any number of historical reasons and precedents, bin Laden has targeted us because:
I) We are the main military supporter of Israel's continued occupation and dominance in Palestine territory, in bin Laden's view a sovereign Arab and Islamic nation.
II) We continue to maintain troops in Saudi Arabia and other sovereign Arab and Islamic nations, thereby marking ourselves in his view as "colonial forces."
Bin Laden is ruthless and a bloodthirsty ideologue. But he's far from irrationally crazy. He's got perfect self-justification for his hatred of anyone that doesn't subscribe to his ideals of complete and total Wahhabite Islam in Arab countries. Please remember that after the Soviets were driven out of Afghanistan, the next thing al Qaeda did was assassinate Anwar Sadat, president of an Arab nation, whose crime was making peace with Israel.
Bin Laden's zealot bent, incidentally, is precisely the reason that overt collusion with Saddam -- who has never been a fundamentalist and leads a largely secular, even in SOME way progressive, society -- is unlikely in the extreme.
Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com NP - Hector Berlioz, "Les pelerins etant venus" - Roberto Alagna (EMI)
-------Original Message------- From: s~Z <keithsz@concentric.net> Sent: 02/13/03 12:46 PM To: zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: War
we've been on this guy's list for a long time.<<<
Why did he put us there? There plenty of other infidel nations he doesn't mess with. Why'd he pick us?
_______________________________________________ zorn-list mailing list zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com To UNSUBSCRIBE or Change Your Subscription Options, go to the webpage below http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zorn-list
participants (1)
-
Chris Selvig