Page 1 of Where is this going to end?

"There are thousands of young people who look forward to death. The Americans must know that by coming to Afghanistan they have opened a new page in the battle against the unbelievers. We shall be victorious. America has opened a door that will never be closed. America must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop."

This is the statement from Al-Qaida, showing that this organisation intends to conduct further terrorist attacks in the coming days, weeks and months. We can expect to see attacks in the USA, Britain and other major players in the Coalition.

Without ending up as an exchange of views on the various ethnic or religious factions involved, I would like to ask what people think the end result of this is going to be. I find it difficult to think of a plan of action that will not either let the terrorists win, or have the conflict become increasingly viewed in the Muslim world as an attack on Islam.

What do you lot think will happen?

Gareth

I don`t know where it end but when I was at school most people belived that the world would end due to nuculer war between the USA and the USSR.

I have to say this is the first time I have felt like this since the late 70`s early 80`s. Lets hope I am wrong on this one.

All the best,

Andrew.

I understand peoples fears. I witnessed the initial horror from close range. But I am also a student of international affairs and hold great faith in the American people.

Mr Laden talks big but he seems to think he holds the monopoly on religious fanatacism. I personally know many young Americans who will gladly trade their lives in the battle against Terror. The Terrorists have made several serious miscalculations.

Afghanistan? We`re not talking about a conscript Russian army here. The US has learned its lessons in fighting from the last century. It now has the foresight to fight the *next* war, not the last one. Mr Laden is fighting a 900 year old war.

A wider conflict? So what? America will take out each terrorist organisation 1 by 1. Time and resources are on our side.

NBC weapons? This does scare me. The only response I can see to this kind of terrorism is response in kind (besides bending over and taking it of course, which is no option).

Does anyone seriously think the killing of almost ten thousand civilians will go unpunished?

America has a storm of missiles, a sea of napalm, walls of steel, mountains of bullets and the people willing to use them. I`m not neglecting the human element here. Our coalition has the power to save these people (by feeding them) or pour fire on them - be it a Terrorist organisation or the whole damn planet.

I`m not American, I`m British. But I`d gladly trade my life for all the Laden`s in the world. We have the means to do it.

Answer: A temporary World Peace or Total Annihilation.

There are two obvious problems that need solving. All our mainstream politicians know it but most are too scared to voice it openly.

The overwhelming reason why America is hated by Muslims is its monetary and moral support for the Jews in Israel.
All Muslims will tell you this.
By withdrawing US support for Zionist Jews, Israel will be left with NO friends and be forced to back down or face another holocaust.
The good decent Jews will leave their `stolen` promised land and be assimilated by America.
They would be made very welcome there, as we all know what great allies they are.
Who cares about the rest?

The second problem is really not so easy to solve. Muslims stick together no matter what!
Some `fair-minded` Muslims condemn Saddam Hussain and Bin Laden but will do nothing to stop these evil men.
America and other countries that do act are constantly criticised for causing the suffering of innocent Muslims.
My solution is to offer the `safer` Islamic governments, military assistance in order that Muslims can go in to places like Afghanistan and Iraq, and root out these evil dictators without infidels (like us) causing offence.
We can then see the caring peace-loving Muslims motives and instincts for what they are!

I very much doubt America will back down in the face of this latest terrorist outrage and particularly while our politicians stand side-to-side with the Americans, no matter what.
I have very grave doubts concerning Islamic fair-mindedness while Bin Laden is treated as an Icon throughout the Islamic world and Palestinians cheer on Scud missile attacks on Israel.

We should test both of these before we decide on Nuclear War. Nuclear war is my bet as Muslims wont fight a war against Hussain and his like!

This situation has all the hallmarks of the end of the world!

Unfortunately, I think that in about a year we will not be here!

Sorry to be doom and gloom, but I cannot see an end to this.

We`ll definitely all be here in a year`s time. This conflict, like Libya and Iraq will be put down (by the West) to some looney A-rabs once they`ve finished bombing the place flat. They`ll pump billions of dollars of aid into the region, then act all surprised when the next Bin Laden pops out of the woodwork. Bush has two choices - try to be everybody`s friend, or establish a world order where the US calls the shots and everybody else agrees. The former route would mean virtual carte blanche for every terrorist cell in the world to start blowing things up. The latter would necessitate an act of greater terrorism on the US`s part to convince people that they mean business and they will take sh*t from nobody.

The stakes being played for are too high to risk being perceived as weak. Almost certainly the anti-terrorist coalition will collapse, but I honestly think that in a matter of a few days it will anyway. The situation will almost inevitably degenerate into the "Holy War" that the more extremist factions are calling for, and the only outlook that could maintain civilisation as we know it will be the tactical deployment of nuclear weapons and the subsequent threat of their use in the future.

"The latter would necessitate an act of greater terrorism on the US`s part to convince people that they mean business and they will take sh*t from nobody."

Well Mark, it is a fallacy that in order to beat the enemy you have to retain the "moral high ground".

In order to gring this filth into the ground you have to be *worse* than them. But then again, a tradition of democracy (that they don`t have) allows you to do this.

See you in hell Mr Laden.

nuclear weapons?
do you honestly think it will come to that ?
That would definitely alienate the muslim world, and most of the west.
Remember pakistan has nuclear weapons, if the hardliners gain control of that country, then things will go down hill.
Don`t forget Saudi Aabia. Bin Laden longs to return to his homeland and overthrow the Royal Family. As he has a lot of hardline support there, it is a conceivable outcome. This would be a disastrous, as the West cannot live without the oil from Saudi arabia.
The best outcome would be if the Northern Alliance, or other Afgan forces found Bin Laden. The West needs to use bribery as well as Force, as the very intelligent Powell has recognised. Turn his men against him.
A Palestine state would help matters, but achieved through negotiation, not terrorism. But Bin Laden is just using that cause to gain legitimacy.
As for Afghanistan, they have been at war in some form or another for 22 years, perhaps the prospect of western economic aid and the overthrow of the Taliban could provide a unifying force ?

"There are thousands of young people who look forward to death. "

Whilst there may be thousands of volunteers to die killing Americans, in practice a successfull suicide raid requires detailed planning, resources and money. How would one of these young people get hold of biological weapons for instance ?

In practice, if America smash the terrorist organisations, the would-be martyrs will not have the tools, money or opportunity to vent their anger on the American population.

America is not making any friends in the middle east, but I do think their policy will eventually effectively stop major world terrorism ...

Interesting points, one and all.

My personal opinion on what will likely happen is ...

1) the US-led Coalition will put substantial ground `assets` into Afghanisatan, suffer some bad losses but in the end eradicate this particular lot of terrorists.

2) Bin Laden will be killed by a aerial bomb - basically because they CANNOT afford to catch him and put him on trial and don`t want to leave behind a body for the TV crews to show on Al-Jazeera - a martyr is less of a threat than an imprisoned `freedom fighter` as having Bin Laden in jail will result in nothing more than an endless stream of attacks aimed at getting him out.

3) The Taleban will be replaced with a `fudge` government that will be no more successful than the previous Northern Alliance government. In ten years time, Afghanistan will be just as poor as now. There`s no Marshall Plan coming for these poor starving and hopeless people. MREs are only good for right now. Give a guy a sack of grain and you`ll feed him for a week. Give him some seed and a plough and he`ll feed his family for a year.

4) the Coalition will do a few other `pin-prick` attacks on Iraq, Lebanon and maybe a few places elsewhere but there will not be any major attacks. To do so would totally destroy the current Coalition which, I agree, is likely to break nto two or three factions soon anyway.

5) another head of the Hydra - another terrorist group - will pop up and commit some act or acts of terror in the US or Britain and then be destroyed. This process will continue ad infinitum.

6) there will NOT be any use (or threat of use) of tactical nukes. To do so would destroy any Coalition immediately and mos definitely lose the support of Russia, China, Pakistan and India, not to mention the UK.

7) America will finally learn that the unconditional support afforded to Israel over the past thirty years has been a mistake that has done nothing but prolong the conflict in the Middle East. It will be necessary to force Israel and the Palestinians to accept a solution that will be ideal to neither side. Such a solution will have to be internationally monitored nd enforced by the UN until it sticks.

8) All this talk of a Holy War will, as it did in 1979 after the fall of the Shah, slowly recede. There will be more acts of terror but these will peter out to a `background noise` level after a few years.

9) The religious divide between the West and Islam will be even wider and deeper than before. Unfortunately, everything seems to have this effect.

Gareth