more on "Trapped in the War on Terror" by Ian Lustick

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brock N Meeks <[email protected]>
Date: November 8, 2006 9:04:39 PM EST
To: Ted Kircher <[email protected]>
Cc: Dave Farber <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on "Trapped in the War on Terror" by Ian Lustick

Well, on the point of the economic consequences, I'm in total agreement.

When I was covering homeland security I distinctly remember one of  
the early bin Laden tapes talked about how one of the goals of 9/11  
was to bleed the U.S. dry (my phrase) economically.  It was, to me at  
the time, a bracing revelation.


On Nov 8, 2006, at 3:03 PM, Ted Kircher wrote:

> These were the exact words in the article - a book review, hence
> I presume they came directly from Lustick's book. However, while I
> am not a Middle East language scholar, I tend to agree with Brock's
> interpretation.
>
> Nevertheless, my two main points were the extreme mismatch in the cost
> to al Qaeda for 9/11 compared to the U.S. since then (which will  
> probably
> reach $300M for each person who died on 9/11), and that the  
> primarily threat
> to the U.S. in the future is not terrorism but economic, especially  
> from China,
> if we continue to go-it-alone with pre-emptive military actions.
>
> Ted
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Farber
> To: [email protected]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 2:21 PM
> Subject: [IP] more on "Trapped in the War on Terror" by Ian Lustick
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Brock N Meeks <[email protected]>
> Date: November 8, 2006 12:10:36 PM EST
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [IP] "Trapped in the War on Terror" by Ian Lustick
>
> With the proviso that I have not yet  read the article mentioned
> below, I am astounded by the very first quote.  Having covered many
> Islamic warlords and spent a fair amount of time in the Muslim world,
> I have never, ever, heard one utter such perfectly phrased American
> cliches.
>
> I find it specious that an "al Quaeda security chief" would use the
> term "took the bait" and "fell into our trap."  I wonder if this is
> an extremely loose translation... or simply a convenient invention.
>
> On Nov 8, 2006, at 11:00 AM, David Farber wrote:
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > From: Ted Kircher <[email protected]>
> > Date: November 8, 2006 10:37:53 AM EST
> > To: Dave Farber <[email protected]>
> > Subject: "Trapped in the War on Terror" by Ian Lustick
> > Reply-To: Ted Kircher <[email protected]>
> >
> > <snip>
>