SCUDs found on their way to Yemen

[Attalus]

What I think is fasciating is that Osama seems obsessed with two far-off events: The loss of Spain to the Franks and the fall of the Caliphate. This baffles me as much as people who are still fighting the Civil War. As for Northern Ireland, the more that I read about it, the less I understand. Again, you have a group of people who are upset at the Result of the Battle of the Boyne (1688?) and Lord Randolph Churchill saying "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right."

[Attalus]

Doing a little research, and found this:

Underlying most of the individual grievances is a sense that Islam has lost its rightful place of dominance, the place it enjoyed half a millennium ago. Al Qaeda deputy Ayman Zawahiri's allusions to the loss of Andalusia (medieval Spain) reinforce Osama bin Laden's promise of revenge and redemption.

Here is the link.
EDIT: To add:"Kuwait was and is part of Iraq in term of language, race and religion and most countries in Middle East were part of 1300 years old Caliphate destroyed by the Western powers with weapons of mass destruction during 1916s."Link

Also, this:A third competing contemporaneous caliphate was established by the Fatimids in Africa, Syria, and Egypt (909-1171). After the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols under Hulagu Khan in 1258, the Abbasids fled to Egypt. The Ottomans captured Egypt in 1517 and Selim I assumed the title of caliph by questionable right. The Ottoman sultans, however, kept the title until the last sultan, Muhammad VI, was deposed. He was succeeded briefly by a cousin, but in 1924 the caliphate was abolished by Ataturk. A year later Husayn ibn Ali, king of Arabia, proclaimed himself caliph, but he was forced to abdicate by Ibn Saud. Since then several pan-Islamic congresses have attempted to establish a rightful caliph. Link

[ 12-15-2002, 01:52 PM: Message edited by: Attalus ]

[The Hunter of Jahanna]

The problem with scuds is, that you can put all kinds of warheads on it, including chemical and biological devices. I don't think a kid with a pellet gun can do that, do you ?

Just because you can arm them with nasty stuff , that doesnt make them reliable of accurate. If I remember correctly only around 10% of the Scud missles Saddam launched in the Gulf war hit anything!! The rest either were shot down,didnt fire, or were horribly off target.

[johnny]

Hunter, if a SCUD is equipped with a chemical device, it doesn't HAVE to be accurate. just launch one in the direction of a crowded area, and casualties will be numerous.

[Ar-Cunin]

What has all of this to do with Yemen's SCUD's

As for the defence issue - everybody knows that offense is the best defence (compare to the new 'defense' strategy of USA)

[dragon_lord]

Originally posted by Ar-Cunin: As for the defence issue - everybody knows that offense is the best defence (compare to the new 'defense' strategy of USA)

And now we get into the idea of pre-emptive strikes as a form of defense. John Howard a few weeks ago said he would, if he could, protect Australian borders with pre-emptive strikes. Alot of south-east asia countries werent too happy about that and started complaining. Even though i believe he was talking about Iraq - it seems like a case of guilty conscious to me. Under current UN rules he cant use pre-emptive strikes as a form of defense anyway but he wants to change that. If it was changed, i sure the Israelis wouldnt put up with Palestinian suicide bombers for much longer.

[Sir Krustin]

A point about arabs:

They respect strength.

Everything in arab culture is about strength. If you show weakness, you are expected to submit. There is no shame in submitting to a dominant culture in arab. There is great shame in submitting when you are the stronger. An examination of middle-eastern history shows many examples of this

One thing that really irritates me about the arab apologists here and in the states is how they think that war won't solve the problem, and diplomacy is the only way to handle the terrorist problem.

The biggest problem with this terrorist situation is that they already perceive the american culture as weak because of the focus on peacemaking. All that has to be done is to convince the arabs they are weaker.

How do you do that, you ask?

Step on them Bomb 'em, shoot 'em, obliterate them until they scream "uncle". Do whatever it takes to show them who is stronger. Until this is done, the arabs won't submit and the terrorism will continue.

[Sir Krustin]

Originally posted by johnny: Whatever Dramnek. Some passages in the Koran say literally that muslims have a sacred duty to spread Islam all over the world, if not possible peacefully, then force is allowed. Now tell me again Islam is peaceful.

Ask any muslim what the term "world peace" means.

World Islamic Dominance.

Originally posted by skywalker: Thanx Grojlach. Very well said. Intolerance will be the downfall of us all. Mark

Tolerating the wrong things can cause just as many deaths Mark.

But in this case, I kind of think Gro. has a point, the "just like all arabs" is a bit too much for my taste.

About preemptive strikes: you know in war, there is this thing called "intelligence" this is not refering to how bright someone is, this refers to information gathered from sources, and if those souorces show you where your enemy is staging his forces for an attack, you would be a complete idiot not to hit them at that place "BEFORE" they attacked. Sheesh, only a complete maroon would say catagoricly that preemptive attacks are wrong.