On September 11th, Opnion Journal had a very
interesting piece by Bret Stephens, named "Red terror, green terror". It compares the terror reign in the seventies by German RAF (= red terror) with the terror wielded today by Bin Laden's Al Qaeda (= green terror). And the similarities between the two seemingly opposed terrorist organisations are indeed frightening many.
However, even Bret Stephens doesn't see the whole picture. Because he lists some differencies between the two organisations, differencies I fail to see and don't agree exist. I do concur with the essence of the article, however, that there are no fundamental differencies between the two. But I would like to expand a little on where he goes wrong in my opinion.
Bret Stephens finds a difference between RAF and Al Qaeda in the fact that the former strived for a Marxist regime, while the latter works for a worldwide caliphate. And he finds that while RAF was a domestic organization, Al Qaeda is a global one. Both assesments are wrong in my mind.
There is no fundamental difference between a Marxist ideology and Islam. Both are manifestations of monotheistic intolerance, and as we all know, monotheists are always waging war against "non-believers", even – or maybe even especially – against other monotheists of the wrong creed. So to see a difference in methods and/or purposes between RAF and Al Qaeda is therefore completely wrong. They're extremely similar, when you dig just a bit below the surface appearance, and consider their common monotheistic makeup. Their religious devotion to their faith is similar, and their complete mixing of religion with politics are the same. And yes, I consider communism to be a (political) religion !
As for the notion that RAF purely was a domestic terror organization, Bret Stephens fails to appriciate, that RAF was just one of a multitude of similar organisations around the world. Each may have worked locally, but they worked together and helped each other, and together worked for a world wide Marxist regime, backed by the Sovjet Union, China and other communist dictatorships. This is as global as you can get, in my opinion. And Al Qaeda is constructed in the same manner, with multiple independent cells, working locally, but striving for a common goal.
A third difference Bret Stephens see, that RAF targeted very specifically on single key individuals, while Al Qaeda targets and indescriminately blows up scores of civilian bystanders, is again only a difference in surface appearance. I'm sure that RAF would have loved to blow up many people, and that Al Qaeda would love to be able to target single key individuals like RAF did, but it's only a question of sophistication, or maybe even only a matter of time.
RAF worked the way they did because they more or less had to. The needed some sort of public support among the German population, and even their strongest supporters would most likely have turned their backs on RAF had they created one blood bath after another. Al Qaeda certainly doesn't have that problem, their supporters are secure in their brainwashed state of mind.
Al Qaeda on the other hand, lacks the sophistication that RAF needed to muster, but in a pessimistic view ahead, they'll most likely attain this sophistication along the way, i.e. in due time, if not stopped before they reach that level. As the article points out, the killers from 9/11 weren't stupid low lifes, they were educated people. So Al Qaeda has brain material to use, so when they smarten up and find a better use for them than just blowing them up, we better watch out and be prepared.
So my conclusion must be, that monotheists are monotheists. And that monotheists are the wagers of terror in the world. MONOTHEISM is the common thread. But we all knew that already, didn't we ??
