Advice from Al-Qaeda
“Your soldiers are in our grip. If you want the safety of your soldiers then do not search for them.”
Because doing what al-Qaeda wants has always worked so well in the past.
Of course al-Qaeda wants us to stop. Al-Qaeda is afraid it might do itself more damage than whatever brief propaganda value it might gain from torturing and murdering American soldiers. The U.S. and Iraqi forces are doing in Youssefiya what we should be doing in a lot of places, with or without missing soldiers.
Ralph Peters wants more, too.
… the subject presidents, pundits and professors all avoid is what it would take to win militarily. Because the answer’s ugly. We prefer to sidestep reality in favor of comfy fantasies that negotiations will persuade blood-drunk murderers to all just get along.
With the last-ditch troop surge in Baghdad, we’re half-heartedly trying an approach we should have applied with everything we had in 2003. We no longer have the numbers to do it right - and our leaders, in and out of uniform, may not have the resolve to behave with the ruthlessness required to turn things around.
Even with the surge, our numbers in Baghdad will be “bare bones.” We’ve finally moved our forces down to the neighborhoods, instead of obsessing about “force protection” and bunkering ourselves inside hermetic bases that severed us from Iraq’s reality. We finally recognized the need for “precinct stations.”
But what we still don’t - and won’t - have is a constant presence in the streets.
But Peters writes like its too late. I can’t accept that, and so far, the Bush administration and the military don’t appear to be willing to accept it either. So far, the only people following al-Qaeda’s advice are the hamstrung* Democratic leaders of the United States Congress, and it really isn’t working out for them.
* sorry, haram choice of words, I know.
Topics: Iraq, al qaeda, military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:35 am on Monday, May 14, 2007
4 Responses to “Advice from Al-Qaeda”
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May 14th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Still, he hits the nail on the head when he says:
At present, we let those other considerations rule our behavior: We overreact to media sensationalism (which our enemies exploit brilliantly); we torment ourselves over the least mistakes our troops make; we delude ourselves that mass murderers have rights; we take prisoners knowing they’ll be freed to kill more Americans - and the politicians and Green Zone generals alike pretend that “it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”
That’s the biggest lie ever told by a human being who wasn’t a member of Congress.
Winning is everything. Fighting ruthlessly may not please the safe-at-home moralists, but it’s losing that’s immoral.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
“Your soldiers are in our grip. If you want the safety of your soldiers then do not search for them.”
Translation: you guys are getting close, please stop!
Go troops!
May 14th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
“Of course al-Qaeda wants us to stop.”
So do Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha. What is the difference between the Democrats and Al-Qaeda?
Hint: that was a rhetorical question
May 15th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Ralph Peters has been the only one saying what needs to be said for some time now. I share his frustration. And his views about the morality of how we’ve been conducting the war.