.....for being a 9/11 truther. Now thats some funny shit.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/al-qaeda-ahmadinejad-end-911-theories_n_985265.html

Quote :

"When he addressed the U.N. General Assembly last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated his belief that the U.S. government was involved in the 9/11 attacks. It seems now that, along with a great many other people, even al Qaeda is sick of the Iranian leader's theories. "

[Edited on September 29, 2011 at 3:08 AM. Reason : .]

9/29/2011 3:07:16 AM

haha

9/29/2011 8:42:18 AM

The Iranian leader and half of this message board's theories.

9/29/2011 10:26:08 AM

^ haha, so sadly true.


Although I will say that the fact that Al Qaeda would bother to take issue with those claims means that they, as an organization, are getting desperate to maintain credibility with radical muslims now that Bin Laden as well as the guy who took over are now dead.

[Edited on September 29, 2011 at 10:42 AM. Reason : .]

9/29/2011 10:39:30 AM

^.

I mean, let's not forget, Al-Qaeda STARTED with attacking us using medieval tactics involving box cutters. Basically exploiting a weakness in our airport security practices. They've since graduated to lighting their shoes on fire, lighting their underwear on fire, and now the "threat" of blowing up a truck somewhere. While there still may be functional franchises operating in other areas of the world, the Al-Qaeda that attacked us on 9/11 has essentially been defeated.

9/29/2011 1:04:43 PM

Except for the whole "ruining our economy" thing, effectively ending U.S. hegemony, killing thousands of U.S. civilians and soldiers, and accomplishing every one of their stated goals, yes, they've been defeated.

9/29/2011 1:15:57 PM

I don't think they've fulfilled their goals at all, actually.

9/29/2011 1:19:45 PM

^^ I thought it was the Fed's monetary policy that destroyed our economy. Get your story straight bro!

9/29/2011 1:24:12 PM

How'd we pay for the "war on terror"?

[Edited on September 29, 2011 at 1:32 PM. Reason : LOWER TAXES, THAT'S HOW!]

9/29/2011 1:31:44 PM

Your mom upped her price by $0.35.

9/29/2011 1:34:17 PM

Bin Laden: "Alright dudes, this is what we're going to do. We're going to crash a bunch of planes into the WTC and Pentagon. Due to this, Alan Greenspan is going to keep interest rates low and print of bunch of money so the US economy doesn't go into recession. Due to this, a bunch of coked out investment bankers are going to start trading in these unregulated securities called CDOs that will create a huge housing bubble. When that bubble bursts, the US economy will crash and Islam will prosper. Everyone got it? Alright, break!"

9/29/2011 1:39:59 PM

War is inherently wasteful. If it was indeed Bin Laden/Al Qaeda that planned and carried out the attacks, they undoubtedly knew how the United States would react. With one attack, they managed to incite two full scale wars, where they were given the opportunity to 1) Kill Americans 2) Drain us economically.

9/29/2011 2:25:13 PM

Quote :

"I don't think they've fulfilled their goals at all, actually."

you sure about that?

Let's compare civil liberty prior to 9/11 and now.

We've created multiple new gigantic branches of government that didn't exist before all because of Al Qaeda (DHS + TSA) and increased the size of many others.

We spent nearly a decade on a wild goose chase to find a bunch of rag-tag extremists responsible for 9/11, invading two countries in the process, costing countless american lives, trillions of dollars, and global credibility.

The uneducated masses in the US are still worried about terrorists and consider the spectre of islamic terrorist attacks on US soil to be a clear and present danger (aka the Fox News viewer base)

So, I'd say they've succeeded far more than most would admit to in their goals of generally fucking with our way of life.

[Edited on September 29, 2011 at 3:56 PM. Reason : .]

9/29/2011 3:55:43 PM

The deficits right now are directly caused by Al Quaeda, and some may argue that the deficits are causing the economy to stagnate or preventing us from doing anything to get ourselves out of it.

So, that's pretty fucking huge when a loosely-organized small group of people can cause our entire country to stumble for a decade or more while China and other countries rise up while we are dicking around and crying like little bitches.

9/29/2011 10:09:36 PM

^^ All true. I would add, though, that the one important goal of theirs that has been an utter, miserable failure for them has been their desire to--in response to the U.S. overreaction that they predicted--have the Islamic world rise up against the West and Western-friendly Arab states into a caliphate.

9/29/2011 11:21:40 PM

^ You are right. There hasnt been a consolidated massive western uprise. Im still feeling bad about this support Israel at all costs mentality. I actually think that the United Nations is the proper channel to determine what the consesus on this issue is.

9/29/2011 11:41:26 PM

we have gotten off topic here a little

9/30/2011 3:06:56 AM

5^ absolutely.

do you really think AQ cares about DHS or TSA? really? Do you think they really care about the Patriot Act? Do you really think they're celebrating true victory with only a relatively small number of American lives lost?

Not one of their true political agendas has been realized. The U.S. is still the most influential country, economically, militarily, and politically. Our foreign policy in the M.E. hasn't changed. Our military dominance and presence in the M.E. hasn't gone away. We are still "supporting" Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. The arab nation hasn't risen as one against western powers. AQ has only had one successful large scale attack in the U.S. and haven't really brought all the fear, death, and destruction they hoped for; 9/11 was a good start for them, but that was supposedly "just the beginning".

[Edited on September 30, 2011 at 8:34 AM. Reason : ,]

9/30/2011 8:34:41 AM

Quote :

"...now that Bin Laden as well as the guy who took over are now dead."

Ayman al Zawahiri is not dead, as far as I know.

Quote :

"We've created multiple new gigantic branches of government that didn't exist before all because of Al Qaeda (DHS + TSA) and increased the size of many others."

Most agencies under DHS existed prior to 9/11. The TSA, which replaced private airport screeners with government trained security officers, is new. Say what you want about the TSA, but do you really want private firms running airport security again, particularly since, as has been noted in this thread, it was weak airport security that allowed 9/11 to happen in the first place?

Quote :

"We spent nearly a decade on a wild goose chase to find a bunch of rag-tag extremists responsible for 9/11, invading two countries in the process, costing countless american lives, trillions of dollars, and global credibility."

We can argue over certain aspects of the Global War on Terror, but you don't get to point out how effective it was in diminishing al Qaeda's operational capabilities and then say it was all a waste.

Quote :

"The uneducated masses in the US are still worried about terrorists and consider the spectre of islamic terrorist attacks on US soil to be a clear and present danger (aka the Fox News viewer base)"

It actually seems like only the highly educated few have any idea what Islamist terrorism is and how it is still very much a threat (at least far as deadly attacks go).

Quote :

"So, I'd say they've succeeded far more than most would admit to in their goals of generally fucking with our way of life."

Their goal is to vanquish Western militaries, diplomats, companies, and culture from the Islamic world so that they can restore their Islamic caliphate, which would look something like Afghanistan circa 1998, where you could be hanged for listening to the Rolling Stones. To that end, I'd say that haven't achieved much.

9/30/2011 9:44:39 AM

Quote :

" Anwar al-Aulaqi, the radical Yemeni-American cleric and one of the most influential al-Qaeda operatives wanted by the United States, has been killed in northern Yemen, Yemen’s Defense Ministry said Friday morning."

Quote :

"Samir Khan, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani heritage who previously lived in North Carolina, and published Inspire, an English-language web magazine which spread al Qaeda ideology and promoted attacks against U.S. targets. U.S. officials said they believed Khan, from North Carolina, was in the convoy carrying al-Awlaki that was struck but that they were still trying to confirm his death."

I'm waiting for the FOX News headline "Obama kills Americans".

9/30/2011 11:11:22 AM

^haha. I hope they don't go that stupid. Great kills.

9/30/2011 11:19:18 AM

Quote :

"Ayman al Zawahiri is not dead, as far as I know."

yep, my bad, I was thinking of Atiyah Abd al-Rahman who was the #2 under al Zawahiri.

Quote :

"do you really want private firms running airport security again, particularly since, as has been noted in this thread, it was weak airport security that allowed 9/11 to happen in the first place?"

What the TSA does is nothing more than security theater. There have been many many documented cases of people (thankfully with no nefarious motives) getting through security with illicit materials, including a pakistani with a loaded gun. Two things have happened that have actually made air travel safer, and neither required the ineffectiveness, taxpayer cost, and bloat of the TSA. The cockpit doors have been reinforced, and passengers have been convinced to fight back (most recently, think of the underwear bomber being subdued by passengers as well as others).

Quote :

"Their goal is to vanquish Western militaries, diplomats, companies, and culture from the Islamic world so that they can restore their Islamic caliphate, which would look something like Afghanistan circa 1998, where you could be hanged for listening to the Rolling Stones. To that end, I'd say that haven't achieved much."

This doesn't make logical sense, even for religious extremists. A small band of militant extremists a world away has absolutely zero chance of success at defeating the US military. I'll have to dig up the quotes, but Bin Laden even stated on record that their strategy was to bleed the US economically until we went bankrupt-- what he learned in Afghanistan fighting the Soviets.

Now, I'm not claiming that their goal was achieved. We're still the global superpower, and the main economic engine for the world.

However, we have now amassed so much debt that we're unlikely to come out of it any time soon.

Even if we "won," it's no more than a pyrrhic victory.

9/30/2011 2:25:04 PM