Michael Savage at the UK Independent has asked Is it time to talk to Al-Qaida? in which he compares them to the IRA in Northern Ireland and says:

Both employed violence, it is true, but beyond that, do the two groups really compare? The IRA’s “demands” were clear enough – there was a point upon which talks could be held, and over the decades, a tentative compromise was found. But al-Qa’ida’s purpose is so vague and unachievable, that when one distills it into some sort of concrete “demand”, it boils down to an all-consuming hatred of the Western lifestyle. In fact, the terrorist act against the West seems to be its purpose. For the IRA, it was a tactic designed to aid its purpose.

The emphasis is mine. I hear this sort of thing so often that I have to reply. Is the abovestatement accurate? Or have is this just the easy path of dismissing one’s enemy without trying to understand it?

Here’s a summary of Al-Qaeda’s goals from a very non-controversial US Navy document called Al-Qaeda: Statements and Evolving Ideology
“Bin Laden issued a declaration of jihad against the United States in 1996 that signaled his emergence as an internationally recognizable figure and offered a full account of his main critiques… Bin Laden condemned the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, criticized the international sanctions regime on Iraq, and voiced his opposition to U.S. support for Israel.7 The declaration also cited massacres in Tajikistan, Burma, Kashmir, Assam, the Philippines, Fatani, Ogaden, Somalia, Eritrea, Chechnya, and Bosnia-Herzegovina” as examples of a growing war on Islam for which the United States should be punished”

So it seems to US Navy analysts that the goals of Bin Laden are pretty well defined; namely, to get American troops out of his native Saudi Arabia and punish the government which let them in; to end the Israel / Palestine conflict and to make a statement about conflicts around the world where Muslim populations were under attack by superpowers or their clients.

Those are not abstract demands about Western lifestyle. Rather they are all demands for changes in foreign policies of Western countries who have tolerated and supported any manners of oppressive, undemocratic governments in the middle east in order to guarantee the supply of oil.

My point is that it is not Bin Laden’s political goals which are unfathomable and absurd. The problem is Al-Qaeda’s use of violence against civilians (terrorism) in the mistaken belief that it will do any good.

If the above are Al-Qaeda’s political goals, the question is not whether or not one should talk to them. The question should be whether or not Western powers should do something about the oil-imperialist foreign policies which are causing so much resentment around the world.