Understanding Oil Qaeda
In The Al Qaeda Network: A New Framework For DefiningThe Enemy,
Katherine Zimmerman of the American Enterprise Institute describes the
terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda. Zimmerman is seen as a
leading expert on the Al Qaeda network, having testified about it to
Congress and written about it for The Washington Post, the Weekly Standard, and the Huffington Post.
In her analysis, Zimmerman identified the geographical locations of
the groups said to be within the Al Qaeda network. These locations
outline an area encompassing parts of Northern Africa and all of the
Middle East. This region, in which the entire Al Qaeda network is based,
represents about 15% of the total land on planet earth.
What is special about this land that might lead its inhabitants to a
life of terrorism? Some, including Zimmerman, say that this region
correlates to the land of Islam and that therefore the correlation is
simply an indication that Muslims are prone to terrorism.
However, the known distribution of the world’s population of Muslims
does not support that contention. According to the Pew Research Center,
only about 55% of the world’s Muslims live inside the Al Qaeda network region.
The other possibility is that, since the area is rich in untapped
resources, powerful people have used claims of terrorism as a pretext to
invade. That possibility is definitely supported by evidence. For
example, ten years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. officials began openly admitting
that the war in Iraq was motivated by the desire to seize oil. U.S.
military leaders including General John Abizaid, head of the U.S.
military in Iraq, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have said that the
war was about oil. Even former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan
Greenspan admitted it.
