Grumpypilgrim is a writer and management consultant living in Madison, WI. He has several scientific degrees, including a recent master’s degree from MIT. He has also held several professional career positions, none of which has been in a field in which he ever took a university course. Grumps is an avid cyclist and, for many years now, has traveled more annual miles by bicycle than by car…and he wishes more people (for the health of both themselves and our planet) would do the same. Grumps is an enthusiastic advocate of life-long learning, healthy living and political awareness. He is single, and provides a loving home for abused and abandoned bicycles. Grumpy’s email: grumpypilgrim(AT)@gmail(DOT).com [Erich’s note: Grumpy asked that his email be encrypted this way to deter spam. If you want to write to him, drop out the parentheticals in the above address].
As was predicted from the get-go.
Not to quibble, but I don't believe in the "war on terror." I think that the 9/11 terrorist acts gave Bush & Co. the excuse to lash out, with expensive weapons and elaborate propaganda, at all kinds of people who had no connection with the 9/11 attacks.
From the reliable-seeming sources I've been reading, the "Al-Qaida" of Iraq are not much connected with the Al-Qaida of 9/11 except in name. I'm not suggesting that there aren't dangerous groups out there planning to do great harm to Americans. Rather, I'm suggesting that terrorist groups that call themselves "Al-Qaida" aren't necessarily connected to the 9/11 Al Qaida.
Further to Erich's comment, indeed, I've seen recently that Bush administration sources have begun using a brand new term: "al-Qaida Central." This is apparently to conceal the indisputable fact that there is no central command of al-Qaida, except in the propaganda-filled minds of Bush administration officials.