Ahhhh, how many times have I heard and seen that expression? It seems to popup every time an opponent of Operation Iraqi Freedom responds to discussion of Al Queda’s role in Iraq. What makes it interesting today is that the relevance of the argument declines with each passing moment.
Now, I’m clearly one of those people that believes groups in the Al Queda network of terrorist groups were in Iraq before the invasion, and were working with Saddam’s regime. That too is less and less relevant with each passing day, and therefore we can debate the matter of historical event and presence elsewhere and at another time. For now, right now, today-in 2008, it’s infinitely more important to talk about Al Queda and the war in Iraq as it is TODAY.
This article does a great job.
To date, not one “mainstream media” journalist has pressed the leading advocates of unconditional surrender to describe in detail what might happen after we “bring the troops home now.”
There’s plenty of unchallenged sloganeering, but no serious debate. This selective political softball and pep-rally journalism serves neither our country nor our political process well.
So, let’s bring those quit-Iraq time-travelers back to mid-2008 and fill them in on what’s happened since they were ideologically stranded five years ago:
* After our troops reached Baghdad, al Qaeda’s leaders made a colossal strategic miscalculation and publicly declared that Iraq was now the central front in their jihad against us. Matter of record, in the enemy’s own words.
* Some Iraqi Sunni Arabs, lamenting the national pre-eminence they’d lost, rallied to the terrorists.
* Al Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliates then embarked on a campaign of widespread atrocities: videotaped beheadings, mass bombings of civilians, assassinations, widespread rape (of boys and girls, as well as of women), kidnappings and brutal efforts to dictate the intimate details of Iraqi lives.
* Al Qaeda’s savagery alienated the Sunni Arab masses in record time. Suddenly, those American “occupiers” looked like saviors.
Author of “Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War
Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War: Malensek, Scott: 9798864028674: Amazon.com: Books
The other argument often put forth, is the threat and influence level of al Qaeda in Iraq, due to numbers. It’s derided that al Qaeda could ever set up a “safe haven”, let alone their super caliphate in Iraq (which might be true, but not without massive suffering and a bloodbath), because of insufficient numbers. The foreign fighter Islamic holy warriors, Iranian agents, and al Qaeda operatives might make up a small percentage of the insurgency and violence workers, in terms of numbers, but I think their influence and bloodletting has been vast. From the bombing of the Golden Mosque, to recruitment of al Qaeda foot soldiers from locals by al Qaeda foreign leadership, to the vast number of homicide bombers being foreign-born….yes, I think al Qaeda plays a significant role in the chaos and violence. Not just the Baathists and Saddam loyalists, and the disgruntled.
Agreed. The point remains, however, what to do about Al Queda in Iraq now? Latest from MNF and others is that the Coalition has never been closer to defeating them in Iraq. AQ propaganda tapes seem to confirm that as they wonder, ‘where did we go wrong.’ Still, as the article shows, no one’s really pressed Sen Obama on how he’d fight AQ in Iraq? Shift to counter-insurgency tactics? That what’s the surge is, and it’s a Bush Admin doctrine that was put in motion almost 2 yrs ago. How about reducing US forces=reducing AQ effectiveness? That’d be an interesting explanation.
Considering he’s a withdraw-fast-as-a-jackrabbit-chased-by-a-coon-dog kind of guy, what’s to ask? He’ll leave that up to the Iraqis.
Someone send this to Senator Obama, who says that we are seeing al Qaeda stronger now than in 2001:
Haha…”involuntary martyrs”. That’s “collateral damage” with a twist.
The “Al Queda is stronger than before 911” perception is based on incorrect claims that cannot be made because one cannot pretend to know B>A if they don’t know the value of A (Al Queda’s strength before 911 was never known) and they don’t know B (no one knows how many people are Al Queda fighters, leaders, sympathizers, propagandists, supporters, etc). But Word…I’d read that article before. WAY too funny to hear the rantings from the left about AQ in Iraq when reading AQ’s comments about Iraq. OMG, talk about out…of…touch!
Oh, and I’m not at all worried that President Obama will immediately pull out of Iraq. Dems said they’d do that if they took Congress, and didn’t have the courage to face the consequences/responsibility. If there’s one constant with Obama, it’s that he’ll shirk big moves and make small ones that he can point to as demonstrative to back up his rhetoric and nothing more. No way do I believe he’d pull out US forces, abandon Iraq, and just accept the consequences.
6-12 months to withdraw
6-12 months for Iraq to collapse
time for the next Presidential campaign cycle to begin.
Sen Clinton would eat him for lunch in the middle of his term if he carte blanche retreated from Iraq.
Funny you mentioned the number of al Qaeda members. Lawrence Wright just did a 14 page article for the New Yorker called The Rebellion Within (I read this in it’s entirety yesterday from a Lucianne link…), discussing the internal disagreements and lack of loyalty and control over rogue members. It’s worthy of reading in it’s entirety, but here’s a couple of excerpts of his information.
BTW, much of this article runs hand in hand with Wordsmith’s “rejection al Qaeda theology” post today as well.
An excerpt preceding this, which addresses those “tangentially connected” members…
Good article, eh Wordsmith? You had linked to a NYPost article, so wasn’t sure you saw this.
It’s actually a story months ago that snuck under the radar. I blogged on this back in Nov 2007. Wright’s article brackets that post with far more historic depth on the history between Dr. Fadl, aka Sayd Imam. I knew they had some bad blood, but Wright thoroughly filled in the blanks.
PS: Where’s your post here? You showed up in my email box, but I don’t see it here. Are you caught by the spam machine???
Greetings:
Back in my infantry days, one of our axioms was “Find them, fix them, finish them.
But, there was a corollary that was not so famous. It was “Let them find you, fix them, finish them.
Both work well.