How many recruits are presently involved with Al Qaeda ?

[kentuck]

Nobody knows for sure, especially our intelligence agencies. When were they correct about anythin? They can't even keep up with $9 billion dollars lost in Iraq.

However, since they are now tracing the London bombing to a possible Morroccan connection, we can say with some certainty that the "movement" is now in North Africa and probably most of the Moslem world. Most of them are probably younger recruits. Most of those may be the unemployed in those nations. They now have a cause to live and die for. How many are there?

No one knows for sure, but you can be sure that there are many more now than when Bush started his war to destroy them. And the longer this ill-conceived invasion in Iraq continues, the more "terrorists" we will have in the future. We have created a monster. And we are feeding it every day.

[hobbit709]

1. Most likely

they're not having problems meeting their quotas.

[tavalon]

2. You mean besides the Bush administration, right? n/t

[H2O Man]

3. You are exactly right.

Those in the American intelligence work who have opposed the Cheney Administration's policies note that their actions have helped to strengthen radical Islamists. The man who I think is the most insightful on Afghanistan and SE Asian issues is Michael Scheuer; his books "Through Our Enemies' Eyes," and "Imperial Hubris" detail the negative consequences that Cheney's policies will have on the United States for at least two generations.

[ReadTomPaine]

5. Esp. recommend "Imperial Hubris"

Listen to Waterman, this guy knows his stuff.

[baldguy]

4. A good estimate: use powers of 10

1,800 US soldiers killed

18,000 US wounded

180,000 Iraqis killed

1,800,000 Iraqis wounded

1,800,000 + 180,000 = 1,980,000

Every one of those 2 million Iraqis has a mother, a father, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbors & freinds.


And then there's Afghanistan.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. Oddly, the typical profile of the suicide bomber

is a young-middle age, middle class, relatively well educated man, not an unemployed desperate youth. The alleged 9-11 attackers were all in their 30's/40's and none of them were unemployed.

Moroccans were also reputed to be involved in the Madrid bombings, and there are other similarities: no suicides, target was transport system, rush hour timing.

There are lots of reports that al qaeda proper, the organization directly run by OBL et al, has pretty much been driven deep underground and has been unable to mount any major actions since we kicked over afghanistan. However, and especially since we stupidly went and toppled Iraq and created that mess, it seems that al qaeda has become a decentralized franchise brand name for international terror aimed at the west. This is perhaps the worst possible outcome of our ill-conceived war on terra (or is it the war in error?) We no longer have the opportunity to do what we should have done on 9-12-2001: gone to war explicitly and with a congressional declaration against al qaeda, as al qaeda is now not so much an organized terror group as it is an idea, a paradigm. Rather than being able to isolate radical fundamentalist extremist organizations from the muslim community, we have turned the muslim community into a planetary breeding ground and safe harbor for radical fundamentalist extremism. Rather than winning the propaganda war, convincing the muslim world that OBL and al qaeda were just lunatics, we have gone a long way towards validating OBL's entire case against us.

What I am saying here is that while our right wing is dismissing the attack on London as failed because the body count wasn't big enough, the reality is that we are losing this ill-conceived war on all fronts.

[kentuck]

7. Al Qaeda is not so much an organized terror group as it is an idea...

and that is more dangerous, I would submit.

[SaintLouisBlues]

10. "the reality is that we are losing this ill-conceived war on all fronts"

Yep, and here's some statistics to counter the right wing spin.

From yesterday's Post-Dispatch:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/world...

snip

"This is just part of the continuing al-Qaida attack," Pape said. "Although many have hoped that al-Qaida had been weakened by American counterterrorist attacks, the facts are otherwise."

The London attacks mark the 15th terrorist event since 2002 linked to al-Qaida or associated groups, he said. Those attacks have killed over 700 people - more deaths than attributed to al-Qaida in all the years before the 9/11 attacks combined.

Pape said that the numbers are even more dramatic within Iraq, a country that had never experienced an incident of suicide terrorism before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The number of such attacks totaled 20 in 2003, 48 last year and 50 just in the first five months this year.

In his book, Pape details how al-Qaida attacks since 9/11 have systematically targeted countries that have allied themselves with U.S. policy in Afghanistan, Iraq or both. The victims in those attacks, from Bali to Madrid, include citizens of 18 of the 20 countries that bin Laden himself has targeted as U.S. allies."

[Botany]

8. But Condi said we had gotten 75% of the top staff from al Qaeda.

Of course the media skipped the follow up ? from a democratic
senator ...... "So how many people are in senior positions in
al Qaeda?'

She couldn't answer that question.

[hobbit709]

11. If true then the remaining 25%

is apparently more capable than 100% of the bush misadministration.

[Botany]

12. I just love when the * admin just throws out #s .....

..... no data .... just #s.

Wolfowitz ..... Iraq will cost us 1 or 2 billion tops

they are all such liars. 75% of what? How the hell did she come up with
that #?

[bribri16]

9. Many more than with our military, that's for sure. n/t