News & Opinion on Terrorism & Strategic Communication — October 18, 2007

Are Americans Victims, Villains, or just Vacuous? “Over the last three months, I asked scores of people how they see America, and one answer came back to me again and again: ‘I love the American people, but hate their government.’ A barber in London, a doctor in New Delhi, and a drag queen in Lahore said those words thousands of miles apart.” (Amar Bakshi, Washington Post, 10/16).

It’s the Apostate Regimes, Stupid. “But what is the tie between terrorism in Iraq today and our future security at home? The answer lies in the ideology of the Salafi movement, and its aims as a political and social force for the region. Because no other outlets for political expression exist in the stagnant autocracies of the Middle East, the popularity of Islamism, sometimes in its militant forms, has only increased in the region since September 11.” (Christopher Heffelfinger, CT Blog, 10/17).

Islamists and Anti-War Left: Strange Bedfellows. “Despite all the mutual mayhem across the Mediterranean and throughout the Middle East, an unnatural alliance was established by elites of the two camps, even while blood was being shed in the 1990’s. Setting ideologies and history aside, the Islamist tacticians and neo-Left pragmatists gradually converged on a two-lane path against liberal democracies and the specter of a free market and pluralist Middle East.” (Walid Phares, CT Blog, 10/16).

Susan Lindauer, American Cassandra. “She correctly predicted what other knowledgeable observers believed. While the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan had al Qaeda on its knees, an Iraqi military defeat would lead to a civil chaos. This would provide the basis for a resurrection of bin Laden’s operation and then revive the al Qaeda terrorist risk to the United States.” (Michael Collins, Scoop, 10/17).