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: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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 <bmeeks@xxxxxxx>
Date: November 8, 2006 12:10:36 PM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
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 <tkircher@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: November 8, 2006 10:37:53 AM EST
> To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: "Trapped in the War on Terror" by Ian Lustick
> Reply-To: Ted Kircher <tkircher@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> <snip>