"Well gotta know the enemy...wah hey"-Green Day

FYI: The beginning of this may be a tad controversial.

I will say that I am in no way defending the actions of Major Hasan or his dispicable act of mass murder...but a member of my family brought up the title of a controversial presentation that Major Hasan gave to his classmates-"Why The War on Terror is a War on Islam."(The NYT confirmed this) ...and I must admit that without having seen this presentation to gauge it's accuracy, I agree.

Upon reading a book by William R. Polk entitled "Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq" I've realize what a long and successful history acts of terrorism and guerrilla warfare have been used to level the playing-field against a stronger entity.

The recent War on Terror however, had a very narrow line of sight: 1. The group must be Islamic. 2. The group must use terrorism as a tactic.
If this were truly a War on Terror, and not just targeting an Islamic flavor, then it would also include: The Basque separatists in Spain, Christian insurgents in East Timor, (until recently->) Hindu-Marxist Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, Action Directe in France, Aum Shinrikyo(religious zealots) in Japan, Babbar Khalsa(Sikh separtists) in India, etc. http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Terrorist.html

Do not think that this goes unnoticed by the Muslim world as well: http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brmiddleeastnafricara/361.php?lb=brme&pnt=361&nid=&id=
"8 in 10 countries believes that the US seeks to weaken and divide the Islamic world."

Not only did we forget to mention some terrorist groups, but we made the stupid mistake of lumping all Islamic terrorist groups together.

Groups Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, most of Taliban(in Afghanistan at least- Pakistani Taliban is more of a global org.) cannot be lumped in with al Qaeda.

The reason for this is b/c those first couple of groups are totally and strictly nationalist groups with real grievances and tangible aims. They want to establish Shariah Law within their borders(assuming they have obvious borders...not so much with Hamas). Their aims are really no different than other religious nationalist groups like evangelicals in the US, Zionists in Israel, or PJP party in India. Their method however, is a violent one. The thing is, we can address their issues and actually deal with them.

al Qaeda however is a transnationalist group that wants to get rid of all nations and establish a global caliphate. They use the plight of the Palestinians and other things as rallying points but really, they don't give a shit about the Palestinians trying to form a nation b/c al Qaeda itself is anti-nationalistic. They have been refered to as Islamofascist but as my Italian heritage has taught me, Fascism is a uber-nationalist philosophy...and al Qaeda is anything but nationalist.

It is important then, to take those rallying points away from al Qaeda. We must solve the Israeli/Palestinian issue, we must stop supporting dictators in the Middle East, we must stop killing civillians and starting BS wars, etc. We will never succeed in killing every al Qaeda operative, but we can make their movement obsolete. As both Sun Tzu and the band Green Day put it: "Know Your Enemy."

Now That's the pot calling the kettle black

Being the cynical pessimist that I am, it is a very rare occasion that someone is able to sink so low that I am left completely flabbergasted.
This week however, I was made aware of a recent quote by the big Texas oilman, T. Boone Pickens. Pickens is quoted as stating that "We're entitled to it"-with regards to Iraqi oil contracts that US energy companies should recieve as compensation for the loss of American troops in Iraq.

Perhaps Mr. Pickens is unaware of what a ginormously, Brobdignagian(I apologize for my Gulliver's Travels reference) mistake the invasion of Iraq was and continues to still be...he IS a Texan after-all. For a look at the Iraqi body count: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

We must of course also mourn the senseless loss of American lives http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm

but it is the Iraqi people who continue to suffer massive loss of life. Just in one day(Oct. 25) more than 155 people, including 30 children, were killed in Baghdad's "Green Zone". And This is supposed to be the most heavily protected and secure area??

Furthermore, Pickens had just recently been parading around the country trying to sell his "Picken's Plan" http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan/ telling us how "America is addicted to foreign oil. It's an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security."

To me, Pickens is like the fat lady shamefully admitting that Americans are fat and should diet... while greedily wolfing down the entire pan of brownies. How about we just let that blood-money be and get to building those fancy windmills??