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| Iraq |
| Pat Dollard about YesterdayÂ’s Hotel Bombing Bad for AQ |
| 2007-06-26 |
| This is along the lines of the message we got today, from Dave Kilcullen at SWJ. Now thereÂ’s no doubt that yesterdayÂ’s heinous assasination of four U.S.-allied Sunni sheiks was a bit of a loss to our side. However, we certainly did not lose our alliance with those tribes. The sheiks who will take their place will not only remain in the fight against Al Qaeda, but will now be even further motivated to crush them. Fresh, fierce blood vendettas are like that. Most importantly, these assasinations represented not only yet another dramatic setback for Al QaedaÂ’s ambitions in Iraq, but for its very survival. Al Qaeda cannot survive in Iraq as a stand-alone entity detached from the population. They need the complicity of the population to survive and function. Wherever they are, the population will know. IÂ’ve done my time on the streets of Iraq, and I understand how Iraqi neighborhoods work. There are no secrets. Now keep in mind that if the population does not want Al Qaeda amongst them, the population will destroy them. They have the means to do it, relatively easily. WeÂ’ve been watching this very scenario play out over the last few months. The Shiites and Kurds will essentially have nothing to do with Al Qaeda. Not only do the Shiites have the obvious religious differences with them, but the Shiites have developed their own social/military/political power structures under leaders like Moqtada Al Sadr, and these men are not about to undercut their own power by fostering the growth of Al QaedaÂ’s alternative government, The Islamic State of Iraq. So this leaves Al Qaeda with only one option for survival: good relations with a receptive Sunni population. Murdering four Sunni sheiks is not the best way to achieve that. In fact, itÂ’s not only a perfect example of how not to achieve that, but of how to assure their own destruction. This bombing was an incredibly stupid act which betrays Al QaedaÂ’s desperate, flailing helplesness. The Sunnis will now only further hate them. Unable to restore alliances with the Sunni tribes they need for survival, Al Qaeda decided to lash out in revenge. It may make them feel good for a minute, and it may make some vague street-rep statement, but it only galvanizes those who will destroy them. By ratcheting up the war with their former and potentially future hosts, they have merely hastened their own demise. No friends = no Al Qaeda. The writing has been on the wall for Al Qaeda and theyÂ’ve seen it. They will never restore relations with the Sunnis of Iraq, because Al Qaeda demands that the territories in which they function submit to their governance. They call their government the Islamic State of Iraq. It is Sharia, it is brutal, it is medieval, it is murderous. The Sunnis got a two year taste of it, and overthrew it. They are not going back. It is an historical maxim that whenever an empire faces its final days, it grows ever more violent - - desperate to preserve itself. From the recent terrorist horrors that have besieged Baghdad - bombed bridges, bombed shrines, murdered sheiks - we are watching Al Qaeda play this maxim out. Al Qaeda survives at this point because some Sunni neighborhoods around Baghdad still give them the cover and support they need. We are currently putting these neighborhoods under seige. The Islamic State of Iraq is finished. The benefits of a stabilized, democratic Iraq, with whom we have good relations, are incalculable. It will be our first line of defense, the WestÂ’s primary bulwark against the rising tide of global Islamic Fascist Imperialism. Should we really give it up just so that Hillary Clinton can get elected President? |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #2 I just figured out what we can do with all those al-Qaeda we have in Gitmo... ...But only if the Sunni tribes *promise* to be nice to them... |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-06-26 20:45 |
| #1 Should we really give it up just so that Hillary Clinton can get elected President? Ouch. Thanks, Sherry. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-06-26 19:04 |