Walkon's column is a crock of shit - I will not bother disparaging it.

Al-Qaeda - the following crap from Little Hawk

"You cannot "stop Al Qaeda" by invading and occupying Afghanistan...or Iraq...or any other nation. In fact, you can assist Al Qaeda in further recruitment by doing things like that. Every time the USA puts boots on the ground in another Muslim nation, they encourage further recruitment for Al Qaeda.

The only way you can stop a movement like Al Qaeda is to resolve the acute political problems that gave birth to that movement in the first place, those being:

1. The oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli security forces.
2. Territorial expansion by Israel.
3. The oppression of Muslim populations by foreign-supported Muslim dictators and despots.
4. The presence of foreign troops and foreign military bases in the Muslim nations.
5. The pressure upon Muslim nations to sell their oil only in US dollars and not in other currencies...or else! Saddam found out about that.

Al Qaeda came into being because Bin Laden was angry about those issues, and he also stated that clearly."

1: For a start Afghanistan was never invaded or occupied. No attempt has ever been made to invade or occupy Afghanistan since the Soviet Union attempted it in December 1979. It did so with 154,000 men of their 40th Army, their first act by some 700 KGB troops was to assassinate the Government and install their appointees. In October 2001 the US Government decided to side with the Northern Alliance (the last internationally recognised Government of Afghanistan) in their ongoing civil war against the Taleban. The US Government input amounted to the full air groups from two USN Carriers plus less than 1,000 specialists. Those forces are accreditted by the chatter left with having invaded and occupied a country two-and-a-half times the size of France with a population of between 28 and 32 million people - the contention is both far-fetched and ridiculous.

2: Were that indeed a recruiting sergeant for Al-Qaeda then the rank and file of Al-Qaeda would by now be of such a size that they would be capable of taking on the conventional might of Red China and they would win. Current estimates of Al-Qaeda strength in Afghanistan and Pakistan is less than 100 operatives. As far as Afghanistan goes Al-Qaeda are an irrelevance and have been since December 2001.

3: "US boots on the ground in a muslim nation"?? So far those have been "Desert Shield" & "Desert Storm" a UN mission in 1991 in Saudi Arabia (Which really pissed off OBL - fuck all to do with Palestine/Israel or any of that bollocks and that was according to OBL at that time) US withdrew all troops after completeion of the operation. Then Afghanistan from where the attacks of 1996 (Khobar Towers); 1998 (US Embassies in Nairobi & Dar-es-Salaam); 2000 (USS Cole) & 2001 (WTC & Pentagon) were all organised from. The UN at that time considered the US response to be proportionate and reasonable. That mission was completed within about eighteen months and reconstruction work agreed between the Afghan Government and the UN commenced. Iraq? As you all have pointed out (Little Hawk included) OBL hated Saddam Hussein, or vice versa, more than the USA, in any event despite predictions of national collapse, civil war, complete and utter defeat or the permanent occupation of Iraq by the US military we all see that by 31st December this year ALL US MILITARY WILL HAVE WITHDRAWN FROM IRAQ So pray tell which other "muslim lands" are US Forces occupying at present?

4: "The only way you can stop a movement like Al Qaeda is to resolve the acute political problems that gave birth to that movement in the first place"

The birth of Al-Qaeda as a movement had absolutely nothing to do with Palestine - High time a lot of people on this forum got it into their thick heads that the "Arab World" or the "Muslin World" does not give a toss about Palestine or the Palestinians - If they did they would ahve sorted the mess out decades ago.