Reply #50: Reality Check

[Sauber]

A couple of points here rebutting R. Scheer and the Documentary

1. Is Scheer saying that we have come accross no proof that Al-Qaeda exists? Al-Qaeda is a clearing house for many disparate terrorist groups not a single homogenous entity. And as such it has strength because it has no official letterhead or address.

Question for DU'ers; what for you, would constitute hard evidence that Al Qaeda existed?

2. I can’t speak to this as I don't follow the British front on GWOT.

3. We've heard so much about dirty bombs simply because it's the new hotness and the media fixates on the flashiest eye catching headlines they can. So exactly who is doing all the frightening talk about dirty bombs? Quick searches turn up lots of media outlets. Interestingly enough though the “experts” R. Scheer speaks of release sensible cautious guidelines.

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/dirty-bombs.html

this is the first link that pops up on google when I type "Dirty Bomb" So Scheer is correct but he's dishonest. He's dishonest by failing to reveal that the sensible experts are most likely associated with the govt. Instead he attempts to paint the hypers as the govt. More to the point how does this hype disprove the existence of Al-Qaeda?

4. UK and US forces did find large and extensive cave networks. You could take issue with the phrase high-tech because a cave is really just a hole in the ground. But in the context of mining engineering you can make the case that many of the caves were built using advanced/modern practices. Don Rumsfeld knew this because we were involved covertly in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation.

One thing the poster left out of the article is this passage:
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While the BBC documentary acknowledges that the threat of terrorism is both real and growing, it disagrees that the threat is centralized
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I think you'll find that the US Govt. agrees with the BBC. Al Qaeda is a worthy opponent for the very fact that is so de-centralized.

When Pres. Bush made statement that Osama was less important than he had been many on this very site decried this as a US policy/military failure. Yet many of you now believe that Osama is indeed a straw man and no doubt blame Pres. Bush for the hype.

R. Scheer has picked some weak points here and upon believing that he has refuted them believes that by logic Al-Qaeda must not exist.

Scott