al-Qaeda's big mistake

[crocodile deathroll]

BBC Pictures

The war in Iraq has galvanized a lot of support for al-Qaeda and the Mujahideen and JI to create a new terrorist honey pot to take on the "Christian" infidel in an Arab country.
But they have really screwed up this time as al-Qaeda IMHO have squandered all that support with the recent school siege in Beslan. People by nature - even most Arabs - have very strong emotional qualms about massacrering children with such sickening means.
So I feel it will be as much of an uphill battle for anyone with any connection with al-Qaeda to ever regain the popular support it once had as the NAZI party did after the holocaust.

 

[demon]

al-Qaeda perpetrated the Beslan siege?
What evidence do you have for this?

 

[reprise]

al-Qaeda has become such a generic term that it's become virtually meaningless to talk about "links to al-Qaeda" anymore.

I've yet to come across any credible claims that al-Qaeda perpetrated this incident (it's not their usual style, either), only vague references to "al-Qaeda connections", which will probably be technically true in that someone involved with the events at Beslan will have at some point have been in contact with someone who has been in contact with someone who has had direct contact with someone who is "an al-Qaeda operative".

 

[Dorian Gray]

Yeah. Al-Qaida has become like Kleenex, Aspirin, Xerox, etc. - a brand name that has become generic.

 

[evildave]

Yes, you must protect your brand identity from dilution, like Hormel has protected its SPAM brand name from internet references to email SPAM (it must be lower-case 'spam') and even Jim Henson Productions.

You'd think Al Qaeda would spend a little time reigning in all these posers to protect its brand name from similar dilution.

Coke once also sued various restaraunt chains who delivered Pepsi when 'A Coke' was requested. They even lost 'Cola' to generica.

A Wikipedia article about genericised brand names.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark

The most dire threat to Al Qaeda, yet! Generification will simply dillute the brand away. Just what court will they fight for their trademark in?

I'm actually laughing out loud as I type this. It's beautiful!

Thousands of little 'Al Quaeda's to join. Controlled by who knows who? Probably some subset of them run by US intelligence. After all, who's to say what cell of the organization is real or not? Then have your little 'Al Qaeda' wannabes do horrible things in the name of 'Al Qaeda' to further your government's goals. If they're ever traced back to you, you were trying to infiltrate 'em!

Need an excuse to invade Iran, for instance? Send a big batch of your clueless terrorists to Iran for 'training', and then invade because Iran is training terrorists, then round up some of the terrorists who will cough up exactly what they were told. Justification made!

Hmm... Less funny: How long has the brand actually been dilluted? The Al Qaeda network has been around for decades, after all. Might they already have been employed in this fashion?

 

[reprise]

IMO, the biggest "mistake" of the Chechyan separatists was allowing the situation to deteriorate to such an extent that any response now proposed by Putin - no matter how extreme - will be perceived as "reasonable" and "justified".