Their absence may be key to our future as a people, if not a nation. And there's a delicious irony that Al Qaeda and the reigning powers in the US find themselves in the same boat.
For nearly two decades, the leaders of Al Qaeda have denounced the Arab world’s dictators as heretics and puppets of the West and called for their downfall. Now, people in country after country have risen to topple their leaders — and Al Qaeda has played absolutely no role.
In fact, the motley opposition movements that have appeared so suddenly and proved so powerful have shunned the two central tenets of the Qaeda credo: murderous violence and religious fanaticism. The demonstrators have used force defensively, treated Islam as an afterthought and embraced democracy, which is anathema to Osama bin Laden and his followers.
So for Al Qaeda — and perhaps no less for the American policies that have been built around the threat it poses — the democratic revolutions that have gripped the world’s attention present a crossroads. Will the terrorist network shrivel slowly to irrelevance? ...NYT
We don't own democracy. So America has no claim to being a role model for demonstrators -- except perhaps for the protesters in our own Wisconsin where those who remember democracy would like to bring it back, wrest it from the grip of our own internal AQ. The real Al Qaeda defeated us long ago, not by any sweeping takeover but by hastening our implosion. All that's left is the belief that we helped the people of the Middle East reach for self-determination. Maybe, in spite of ourselves and our dependence on their resources, we did.
