AP: A-Q more powerful, terrorism increases.

[Warsie]

Like what?

There's always what Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Ward Churchhill, Jeremiah Wright etc. said; for the US to stop being imperialist assholes

Which doesn't really matter though because our focus is on Iraq.

k

[Sam Or I]

It's funny how certain people seem to be completely incapable of understanding that Al-Qaeda is not an army. It's a political movement. Like any movement, it has a certain level of organization, certain leaders and figureheads, etc. But it's not an army in the traditional sense. Wiping out Al-Qaeda "fighters" in a battle here or there has little effect on the strength of the movement.

Would not Bush and Co. agree with this and play on this theory? Bring democracy to the middle east to help stop terrorism, fighting the ideology of terrorism with the ideology of democracy? Granted I think we all can agree the execution of this of this policy has been a mistake. But is the underlined theory of fighting on set of beliefs with another a valid way to combat Al Qaeda

[Darth Wong]

It's funny how certain people seem to be completely incapable of understanding that Al-Qaeda is not an army. It's a political movement. Like any movement, it has a certain level of organization, certain leaders and figureheads, etc. But it's not an army in the traditional sense. Wiping out Al-Qaeda "fighters" in a battle here or there has little effect on the strength of the movement.

Would not Bush and Co. agree with this and play on this theory? Bring democracy to the middle east to help stop terrorism, fighting the ideology of terrorism with the ideology of democracy? Granted I think we all can agree the execution of this of this policy has been a mistake. But is the underlined theory of fighting on set of beliefs with another a valid way to combat Al Qaeda

Al-Qaeda's ideology is not an "ideology of terrorism"; terrorism is simply a means to an end. Also, the "ideology of democracy" is not necessarily opposed to terrorism or wahhabism. Remember that if the majority of people support it, then it's democratic: do you assume that democracy makes people always vote the way Americans would? This line of reasoning is just as horribly broken as the notion that Al-Qaeda is a conventional army, even leaving aside the implementation.

[K. A. Pital]

Also, the "ideology of democracy" is not necessarily opposed to terrorism or wahhabism.

Indeed, if Hamas or the Chechen Islamists, or Iran are any indicator. If the majority of people are not opposed to, or actively supporting islamism and jihadism, how is that undemocratic?

And terrorism is not an ideology anyway. Whoever cooked up that democracy and terrorism, or democracy and islamism are incompatible is a highest degree moron.