Talk:Al Qaida

In order to resolve the question of an English spelling translation, I searched at merip.org for 'qaeda' 38 results; for 'qaida' 1 result. Another search at memri.org returned 11 for 'qaida' and none for 'qaeda'. I also searched a local repository of articles from http://usinfo.state.gov/admin/005/wwwhmenu.html which yielded a slight balance in favor of qaida (62:50)

The matter is not quite yet resolved. My personal choice for most authoritative source at this time would be memri which endorses qaIda unambiguously.

As a separate matter, the capitalization (or not) of leading 'a' in "al Qaida": Seemingly ALL uses external to SourceWatch are lower case. In Wiki, links are case insensitive so that al Qaida is equivalent to Al Qaida, in the first character only!

Wikipedia settled on Al-Qaida

Re "we must be honest with the facts in order to construct a viable long-term strategy"

You're absolutely right ... but the NEED for THE Al Qaida boogeyman must be satisfied, hence the "evil empire" and the Axis of evil ... it's always 'us' or 'them', kinda like the good old days with RR riding horseback, saving the damsel in distress, and getting it all done by the end of the TV Western (excluding commercials, that is ... but now we have so much real comic relief, commercials are optional).

The recent articles posted at Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire have revealed just how out of touch with future realities the Bush administration has been since long before day one .... harkening back to lots of PNAC stuff, eh?

Now, we have a new stealth squad of Lone Ranger/Batman/Rifleman/McGiver/G.I. Joe/A Team/yadayadayada heroes -- a.k.a. Task Force 121 -- being sent out on a search and destroy mission to round up and/or kill the "boogeymen" wherever they may be in hiding.

This change in strategy does, in and of itself, prove that "we" are no longer pursuing a well-organized Hessian or Roman army aligned along the high ridge, we are not going to have a picnic on the banks of the Potomac while we wait for North to meet South, or even simply eliminating the huddled masses of Taliban allegedly tucked away neatly and snugly in caves with outrageously powerful bunker busting bombs. Now the "real war" is on ... Hark! Did I hear that "Bring'em on" echo? ... and we have to resort to Israeli commando tactics to ferret out the enemy and kill him ... "hunter and hunted" as I've seen it posed ..

Enuf rant! You're right M. 12/11/03 09:36 (EST)  AI

Edit note
Relocated comment from article page. --Bob Burton 05:38, 27 February 2009 (EST)


 * The previous entry for this said the "data-base." This is highly incorrect.  I suggest you go out and learn Arabic and get a Hans Wehr Dictionary and look up the root.  And by the way this entry is wrong there was never a data file on these guys this is conspiracy BS.