Random Thoughts of a Muddled Mind

I am currently reading the incredible book The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.
There has been an interesting debate of late due to the story in the NY Times this weekend about a leaked portion of the most recent NIE…which the President today partially declassified.
The debate right now is whether or not the leak accurately expressed the findings of the NIE…It does not appear so….at least not completely. There are statements that indicate an escalation, but interestingly, a passage I just read from Wright’s book

Azzam’s fatwa draws a distinction between a Fard ayn and a fard kifaya. The first is an individual religious obligation that falls upon all Muslims, like praying and fasting. One cannot avoid such duties and be considered a good Muslim. If nonbelievers invade a Muslim land, it is fard ayn–a compulsory duty–for the local Muslims to expel them. If they fail, then the obligation expands to their Muslim neighbors. “If they, too, slacken, or there is again a shortage of manpower, then it is upon the people behind them, and on the people behind them, to march forward. This process continues until it becomes fard ayn upon the whole world” (Wright 102-103)

…suggests that the cause/effect relationship is not as clearcut as some might imagine.

This quote refers to the fatwa of Abdullah Azzam, once mentor of Osama Bin Laden…but lest you be confused, it was not issued to deal with the US invasion of Iraq…but rather was issued in 1984 in reaction to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
Consider that the adminstration has consistently stated that “we are fighting them there, so we do not have to fight them here”…a position that has often been scoffed at….but maybe, just maybe, someone in the White House understands better than we realized that this concept might come into play.