What is a War on Terror?

Many those who have been opposed to the recent combat operations in Iraq have been raising questions about how the removal of Saddam is vital in the War on Terror when there may or may not be strong links
to al-Qaeda. This question is bases on the erroneous assumption that each terror organization operates alone in its own sphere separate from outside intervention. Nearly all terror organizations do have some link o to each other and much of that link runs through our old adversaries in Havana and North Korea.

Over the past years some of the most notorious terrorist organizations in the world - PLO, IRA FARC ETA, FALN, Hamas - have been hosted and encouraged to open training facilities on Cuban soil by Fidel Castro. An Afghan al-Qaeda defector did report seeing Cubans training in camps in the Kunar province of Afghanistan. Five months before the attacks of September 11, Castro visited Teheran where he and Ayatollah Khamenehi stated that Iran and Cuba would defeat America, and swore publicly to destroy the United States. In May 2001, Castro toured Syria, Libya and Iran to garner support for this effort. This is why Cuba remains on the list of state sponsor terrorist.

In the 1980s, Cuba started an intensive search for atomic minerals in its territory. The search revealed uranium Northwest of Pinar del Rio, called the Hierro-Mantua ore, and early in the 1990s, Cuba was able to obtain Yellow Kake. Cuba has developed an industry dedicated to the specialized needs for the biotechnology, as well as the nuclear related industry. This industry assisted Iraq’s nuclear centers needs and provided Iran with material it could not purchase in the world market.

It is common knowledge that the PLO(Palestine Liberation Organization) has harbored Hezbullah-trained suicide bombers. Iraq/Sudan-supported PLO and Iran/Syria-sponsored Hezbullah have persisted in bolstering Islamic terrorism, threatening pro-US Arab regimes and Israel as well as other US interest. Financed and supplied by Iran, and logistically-backed and trained by Syria, Hezbullah has facilitated a deepened PLO-Hams-Islamic Jihad coordination. Hezbullah terrorists have been recently imported, by the PLO, into Gaza for training and operational assignments. In addition, Osama Bin-Laden, a veteran ally of Hezbullah, heralded by PLO media, established an Al-Qaeda outpost in Gaza prior to the attacks of September 11.

Those who research terrorism can easily trace the IRA's (Irish Republican Army) connections to the PLO and its numerous factions back to the 1970s and 1980s, when IRA and PLO operatives trained together in Libya and the Bekaa Valley. Recently, the IRA has been teaching Palestinian terrorists to build booby-trap bombs for use against Israeli soldiers, according to a British explosives expert working in the Jenin refugee camp. In addition, IRA operatives are suspected to have carried out a vicious sniper attack against Israeli citizens.

On August 11, 2001, two members of the IRA, who were known to be stationed in Cuba and reportedly on the payroll of the Cuban Communist Party, were arrested by Colombian officials after leaving the territory in southern Colombia controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On April 24, 2001, the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations published the findings of its investigation into IRA activities in Colombia. Their report clearly demonstrated a longstanding connection with FARC, mentioned at least 15 more IRA terrorists who have been traveling in and out of Colombia since 1998, and estimated that the IRA had received at least $2 million in drug proceeds for training members of FARC. Finally, the IRA has been know to have relations with ETA the Basque separatists in Spain , The PLO in Palestine, Turkish and other Middle Eastern Islamic extremist. In fact, murals in Northern Ireland have been found depicting IRA and PLO gunmen bear the message "IRA - PLO One Struggle."

Finally, since the mid-1960s, North Korea has been an ardent supplier of military equipment and expertise to governments and resistance movements throughout the Third World. The Middle East is the major market for North Korean arms, with most sales going to Iran and Libya. By 1990, North Korea had provided military training to groups in sixty-two countries. North Koreans are alleged to have operated Libyan tanks during the 1977 Egyptian-Libyan conflict, and some reports suggest that as many as 100 North Korean pilots and air crews were in Libya training pilots on Soviet-supplied aircraft beginning in 1979. North Korea's support for the PLO began in the late 1970s and included military training in North Korea and the supply of small amounts of arms.

This what a war on terror looks like. For those who claim that ideology would refrain certain groups from joining together against the United States are proven incorrect by the facts of History. Iraq may have not been directly linked to Al-Quida, but Iraq was definitely guilty by association. The IRA, PLO, al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, FARC, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are ultimately all part of the same terrorist network. The Iraq military operation was as vital in the war on terror as Iwo Jima was in our war against Japan. Iraq represents the second step in an "island hopping" campaign dedicated to destroying those united against peace, liberty, and freedom. So, What is a War on Terror, It is a covert World War.