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Hello All,<br>
<br>
I have been very quiet for a while, partly because of a large amount of
work, partly because I was overwhelmed by the flood of messages on this
listserve which was just too much to follow. I am just in the process of
picking up again. I came across Chris' post about Al-Qaeda resembling an
Open Space organization and I would like to make a few comments. I will
quote only what is relevant, those who would like to see Chris' original
post can find it in the archive on October 15.<br>
<br>
At 10:19 15-10-2001 -0700, Chris Corrigan
wrote:<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>
<ul>
<li>Would an organization with global reach organized around a purpose of
a "higher good" stand a chance of being as successful as
Al-Qaeda has been in achieving it's objectives? </blockquote>
</ul>Before this question can be answered, we need to ask another one: Is
Al-Qaeda successful? <br>
And before we can answer that one, we need to know what the objectives of
the organization are. If we look at it from the outside, it looks as if
its objectives are to destroy or at least severely cripple the United
States as a nation. But I do not believe that is a goal in itself. I
think the reason people become so passionate about this is a profound
feeling of injustice. So I would like to think that the longterm goal of
movements like this is justice. There is no doubt in my mind that the
people in this organization must be very desperate to make them listen to
a very sick (but probably also charismatic) man like Osama bin Laden. But
these two things are important: most of these people are 1.
desperate and 2. seeking justice.<br>
<br>
Now I ask the question again: are they succesful? I think they are not.
The means they have chosen will not likely bring them justice. At this
moment, it is only bringing them the retaliation of the largest military
force on earth. Which will only increase their feelings of injustice.
Which in turn will make it easy for Bin Laden's recruitment agency to
find more desperados. In this light I fully agree with the writings of
Robert Bowman, posted by Julie Hotard on the 12th of this
month.<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>
<ul>
<li>For the countries that are at war against Al-Qaeda, what kind of
thinking and organizing is going to be successful in defeating this
network? Is it possible for governments to fight an group organized
this way? </blockquote>
</ul>In the light of what I just wrote, do we still want to fight them?
If their ultimate goal is justice, we might want to consider helping
them.<br>
<br>
I would like to know what you think.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
Koos<br>
<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Koos de Heer<br>
Auryn management advies BV<br>
Utrecht, the Netherlands<br>
<a href="mailto:koosdhr@auryn.nl" eudora="autourl">mailto:koosdhr@auryn.nl</a><br>
<a href="http://www.auryn.nl/" eudora="autourl">http://www.auryn.nl/</a></html>