Angry amateurs a serious threat

Eric Margolis makes a lot of sense with his writings. He's right up there with Gwynne Dyer.
Angry amateurs a serious threat
Lucky for us, many homegrown terrorists are bumbling dopes that stick out like an Islamic sore thumb

Enter Afghan emigrant Najibullah Zazi, a shuttle bus driver from Denver. He was determined to stage an attack on civilians in New York to protest the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Sporting a lush Islamic beard and accented English, and making few efforts to conceal his activities, he bought carts full of acetone and peroxide from beauty supply stores to confect a homemade bomb.

Zazi stuck out like an Islamic sore thumb and was quickly identified as a terrorism target by the FBI five months ago. He was arrested as he arrived in New York with his explosive materials.

Luckily for the city, Zazi was a bumbling dope, not a master terrorist. In fact, most Muslims charged with terrorism in the U.S., Britain, Canada, and Europe have been homegrown amateurs protesting over Afghanistan or Iraq.

They were not experts sent by al-Qaida as authorities have claimed to make the arrests seem more important and show governments are successfully fighting anti-western groups.

These young men were violently reacting to western military operations in the Muslim world, not attacking the West because, as former president George W. Bush so deceitfully claimed, they hated its values and freedoms. This was not mindless terrorism but direct blowback from western actions.

http://www.ottawasun.com/comment/columnists/eric_margolis/2010/02/26/130...