CNN is repeating the comment, attributed to “Lebanese government officials,” that the massive fighting that has broken out in Tripoli is the fault of “Al Qaeda”*. By eerie coincidence our friend Juan Cole has some very profound observations just today, about this “organization” we call Al Qaeda:

Another important impetus to al-Qaeda’s survival is that it has taken the place of the Communist Party as radical response to the status quo. Al-Qaeda’s top leadership is rich, not poor, and it is a movement of the Right, not the Left. But it is a radical, populist Right that can attract the dispossessed.

This cannot be too often repeated, because it is one of those say-whaaa?? sort of things that takes many repetitions and a good deal of thought to soak in. But look at the longer version of Cole’s post on the subject and it’s really been there in front of us all along:  Read more