This photo was taken in the Gaza strip back in 2000.
“Just moments after this picture was taken, Muhammad al-Durrah was shot dead. Now the 12-year-old boy has been turned into a new martyr for the Palestinian cause.”
The father was walking Muhammad home from school when the Israeli’s started firing back against the Palestinians.
For all of those that were not well educated about the longest war in American history, this will help you understand one of the major aspects as to why the al-Qaeda felt the need to attack us:
Quick vocabulary lesson before you read:
Fatwa- rules regarding Islamic law based on Koran
Mujahideen- the “freedom fighters” of the 1980s who fought against the soviets (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH PRESENT DAY TALIBAN)
Abu Hajer- co founder of al-Qaeda
“A new vision of al-Qaeda was born. Abu Hajer’s two fatwas, the first authorizing the attacks on American troops, and the second, the murder of innocents, turned al-Qaeda into a global terrorist organization. Al-Qaeda would concen- trate not on fighting armies but on killing civilians. The former conception of all-Qaeda as a mobile army of muja- hideen that would defend Muslim lands wherever they were threatened was now cast aside in favor of a policy of per- manent subversion of the West. The Soviet Union was dead and communism no longer menaced the margins of the Is- lamic world. America was the only power capable of blocking the restoration of the ancient Islamic caliphate, and it would have to be confronted and defeated.”
— The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright
The rest of the story is one that people of my generation may never fully understand but would change American lives forever.
I’m truly emotional thinking about the next lecture in my terrorism class. We have finally made it to this day, the day that changed our lives. All I can do is imagine; what would this country be like today if these towers still stood, if the al-Qaeda were not threatened by us, if the Taliban students of the Madrassas were not brain washed into hating us, if Bush never invaded any Middle Eastern countries…
We would all be living our lives very differently.
Fuck, I just found out my terrorism test is all essay format. STRESSING OUT.
I will devote my day to studying and reading.
Not being lazy; therefore I will:
- catch up on reading for terrorism
- brush up on my French so I can Skype with Charley
- clean my car
- make soup, or something delicious
- watch a few episodes of six feet under
- come up with a genius idea for this next photo project
GLORIOUS.
So I’m reading The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, the topic of which is pretty self-explanatory.
So far I’ve learned a few things about Osama bin Laden that, I would guess, the average person doesn’t know. Including…
- Osama’s dad, Mohammed, who was a wealthy Saudi businessman…
This will be the week from hell. I have hundreds of pages to read about Osama Bin Laden, Zawahiri, and their group of shit heads.
Better quit procrastinating on tumblr and get going.
And her radical thinking is getting to be out of hand. First off she’s telling me that the Black Panther Party is going to start committing terrorist acts, now she’s posting videos about Muslims marching in the streets of Britain saying it’s ”the beginning of the end” She’s always trying to tell me that the worst has yet to come and quite frankly I’m sick of it.
“Long live the PLO” apparently someone in this country is still a fan of terrorism #palenstinian #PLO #terrorism #lol (Taken with instagram)
I might lose it. She seems to think WWIII is going to happen. There’s anthrax being transported through underground Mexican tunnels under the border, Russian troops are gathering at the border or Iran, and Israel is about to attack Iran. The black Panther Party is becoming hostile and rioting. where is all of this ‘intelligence’ coming from you ask? None other than Glenn Beck.
I’m already on my seventh page for this paper, I only need ten pages. I have so much information it’s insane. I’ve barely even started talking about specifics on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve never been so prepared to write a paper in my entire life.
“How We Lost the War We Won: Rolling Stone’s 2008 Journey Into Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan”
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-we-lost-the-war-we-won-rolling-stones-2008-journey-into-taliban-controlled-afghanistan-20110131#ixzz1uwAYICiS
Conclusion
After more than eight years and some 4,400 US casualties, the war of choice in Iraq thankfully ended on December 15th, 2011. Furthermore, the war in Afghanistan perseveres. US fatalities have doubled since Obama was elected and now it seems as if the war in Afghanistan has turned into a dragged out reality show that has lost the attention of many. The protagonist has been killed, the sole reason we invaded, so why do we linger in the graveyard of empires increasing the death toll and our outstanding national debt? The carnage that continues with the Taliban is relentless and will never come to an end, no matter our persistence. Obama and Karzai have laid a strategic agreement for the withdrawal of US troops starting in 2014 possibly carrying through 2024. “Neither Afghans nor Americans asked for this war,” the president said, noting that “for a decade we have stood together. We look forward to a future of peace.” (Coolidge) With that said, my opinion is divided between optimist and pessimist. The only question that remains unanswered with the conclusion of this course is, how long will this war of necessity remain a necessity?
4287 in Iraq
3006 in Afghanistan
2996 in New York
“A date which will live in infamy“
If you make something angry, it’s going to bite. The HAMAS terrorist group has been essentially been getting on Israeli’s last nerves since they formed in the 1987, in fact, the Palestinian Israeli conflict has been going on since before Jesus Christ himself was born.
So all of you saying, ‘poor Gaza’ stop the genocide, time to take a lesson in history. Both sides are guilty. I’m not justifying the deaths of innocent civilians by any means because that is awful and I feel terrible for both parties, but that is conflict. That is war.
