I could see us declaring war on Al Queda but the "war" we are supposedly fighting is with the nebulous thing known as "terrorism". There is Al Queda. But in Afghanistan, we are fighting (often) against the Taliban. In Iraq, it may be both Sunni and Shiite groups under various names with Al Queda in Iraq thrown in for good measure. In Indonesia, we are supporting efforts against Jemaah Islamiyah. In Yemen, we have used predator drones against the Jannubi. Some groups have soem ties to Al Queda, some seem to be doing their own thing. The alliances seem to come and go and we don't necessarily know what is going on with the various groups.
The Barbary Pirates at least had a fairly well defined region of operation and a structure that helped divvy up that area. Modern terrorism, even if we just restrict ourselves to radical muslim based groups, is more amorphous. I think you'd have a much harder time figuring out a way to usefully define what you are declaring war on, which is one of the big problems we have. If you're curious, GlobalSecurity.org has a nice run down on currently known active terrorist organizations, their region of operation and their affiliations: http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/terrorism_organization_home.htm Judah On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 10:23 AM, William Bowen <william.bo...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Al-Queda is not a nation the last time I checked. > >>> Al Qaeda declared war against the US. > > There's no difference between Al Queda and the Barbary Pirates (a > "Fred Smith" precedent if there ever was one) of the 19th Century. > > No nation. No problem. Declare war on the "leadership" and > "membership" and be done with it. > > I thought this had been covered? > > > > > -- > will > > "If my life weren't funny, it would just be true; > and that would just be unacceptable." > - Carrie Fisher > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:318320 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
