I was doing some housecleaning tonight and ran across an issue of Soldier of Fortune from April 1991. Inside was a fold-out map of the Middle East, as Desert Storm was the headline story of the day. There was also an article titled "Terrorist U", about Afghanistan becoming a "training ground for [a] new breed of Islamic fanatics".
The most organized radicals are from the Arab heartland: Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians and Palestinians. This is a region where conflict with Israel is a part of the landscape, and where there is a strong tradition of underground radicalism.Sunni Wahhabis were throwing money at Islamic mujahadeen in Afghanistan. The Afghans provided support to the Kashmiri independence movement against India. The author's finishing tone implied he expected Islamic radicals to be a destabilizing influence in China's Xinjiang province and perhaps looked forward to it. Who would have guessed then that instead the purist radicals would extend their reach globally and strike out at the West?
Awesome sentiment! I totally agree with you!
Posted by: fleshlight at September 19, 2004 08:26 AM
Very quiet in this thread lately. More comments please.
Posted by: zip code at February 10, 2004 03:11 AM