20060424
Bin Laden Is Not Done
    Over the weekend, a new audio tape was released by the Arab news organization al-Jazira, from the voice attributed to Osama bin Laden since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The voice spewed its usual rhetoric, but those things were items that should be noted.
    First, and perhaps foremost, was bin Laden’s call for al-Qaeda and sympathetic forces to begin to move to Sudan in advance of a potential UN peacekeeping mission in the embattled Darfur region. This item is especially interesting because bin Laden and al-Qaeda once operated out of Sudan, and there are currently Muslim insurgencies, potentially fueled by al-Qaeda or sympathetic forces in nearby Somalia and Ethiopia.
    This call to arms is important because it brings back to the forefront one of the forgotten battlefronts in the war against Islamic radicalism and the War on Terror, that is sub-Saharan Western Africa. The area has long been a stronghold for Muslim fundamentalism, and in the past decade has developed into a breeding ground for the kind of radicalism that groups like al-Qaeda support. Successful insurgencies in nations like Sudan, Somalia, or Ethiopia would give groups like al-Qaeda new operating grounds for training and launching operations, and a news source of recruits.
    Second to the issue with Sudan is the awareness that the voice of bin Laden showed for the events currently transpiring in Palestine as a result of the recent political victory of the terrorist group Hamas. The concern here is that there is growing evidence that al-Qaeda is actively recruiting and forming cells in Palestine. With a terrorist government in charge, such recruitment and formation will likely continue unchecked, leading to the potential of another front in the ever expanding War on Terror.
    The moral of this story is that al-Qaeda is not done. They are actively continuing their planning and operations against the West. If there was ever a time that the West and the nations engaged in the War on Terror need to keep their guards up, it is now.
Neither is Ahmadinejad
    Not at all coincidentally, while the voice of bin Laden was releasing its latest audio tape, the president of Iran decided to spew another pile of his own rhetoric. In case no one has noticed, these tirades by Iran have become more frequent, and arguably more vociferous, over the past several months as the rest of the world demonstrates its inability to deal with Iran and its burgeoning nuclear weapons program.
    Make no mistake that groups like al-Qaeda and nations like Iran act in concert, if even from a distance. While these groups are widely ideologically opposed, their hatred of Israel and the West is enough unity for them to set their difference aside long enough to make war on their enemies.
    For those who doubt such a connection, such doubt becomes a roll of the dice. Were 9-11, Madrid, Bali, and London just aberrations, or do they represent a new and ongoing threat to the world by nations like Iran and groups like al-Qaeda?
And Then There Is Oil
    Unfortunately, while the radical Muslim world is uniting in an effort to destroy the US, the citizens of the US are distracted by a potential economic disaster of its own making, and that is the ongoing rise in the price crude oil, and therefore gasoline.
    If ever there was evidence of the shortsighted domestic energy policy the US has engaged in since the oil crises of 1973 and 1979, then recent massive inflation of oil and gas prices have to be it. While many want to blame greedy oil companies and uncaring government for such a problem, the real blame lies with the uninformed and complacent consumer.
    Even at $3.00 a gallon, a record number of Americans are driving. On any given day, the highways are clogged with Americans individually driving primarily fuel inefficient, gasoline burning cars. Even while this crisis begins to immerge, there is little call for a solution among consumers beyond ‘make gas cheaper’.
    The truth is that the solution lies in alternatives, and alternatives beyond electric hybrids and fuel cells. The solution lies in changing the way the US thinks about generating energy and transporting itself. Only if such a change occurs will a solution present itself, and in reality, such a solution is still decades away. In the meantime, rising energy prices will continue to threaten the US economy, and that threat becomes worse the longer the alternatives are ignored.
DLH
