Woe Is Them
Strategypage has an interesting article on al Qaeda’s Internet “Why we lost Iraq” meme.
Today, al Qaeda has been shattered, with most of its leadership and foot soldiers dead, captured or moved from Iraq. As a result, al Qaeda attacks have declined more than 90 percent. Worse, most of their Iraqi Sunni Arab allies have turned on them, or simply quit. This “betrayal” is handled carefully on the terrorist web sites, for it is seen as both shameful, and perhaps recoverable.
This defeat was not as sudden as it appeared to be, and some Islamic terrorist web sites have been discussing the problem for several years. The primary cause has been Moslems killed as a side effect of attacks on infidel troops, Iraqi security forces and non-Sunnis. Al Qaeda plays down the impact of this, calling the Moslem victims “involuntary martyrs.” But that’s a minority opinion. Most Moslems, and many other Islamic terrorists, see this as a surefire way to turn the Moslem population against the Islamic radicals. That’s what happened earlier in Algeria, Afghanistan, Egypt and many other places. It’s really got nothing to do with religion. The phenomenon hits non-Islamic terrorists as well (like the Irish IRA and the Basque ETA).
… the “Al Qaeda In Iraq” leadership was out of control. Most of these guys are really out there, at least in terms of fanaticism and extremism. This led to another fatal error. They declared the establishment of the “Islamic State of Iraq” in late 2006. This was an act of bravado, and touted as the first step in the re-establishment of the caliphate (a global Islamic state, ruled over by God’s representative on earth, the caliph.) The caliphate has been a fiction for over a thousand years. Early on, the Islamic world was split by ethnic and national differences, and the first caliphate fell apart after a few centuries. Various rulers have claimed the title over the centuries, but since 1924, when the Turks gave it up (after four centuries), no one of any stature has taken it up. So when al Qaeda “elected” a nobody as the emir of the “Islamic State of Iraq”, and talked about this being the foundation of the new caliphate, even many pro-al Qaeda Moslems were aghast. When al Qaeda could not, in 2007, exercise any real control over the parts of Iraq they claimed as part of the new Islamic State, it was the last straw.
Unfortunately Strategypage cites no sources and provides no specific quotes, unhelpfully advising Arabic speakers to hunt around for themselves on the Internet. This is too bad, as it would be nice to be able to cite chapter and verse in countering all the handwringing chatter about how we lost the GWOT.
Hot Air suggests the AQ defeat in Iraq will resonate, cannot be denied even by al-Qaeda. Unfortunately, it is being ignored by people who want to be president of the United States.
Apropos of which, Tigerhawk: “Let us hope that when President Obama actually gets to see the war from the inside he changes his point of view.”
A nice thought. But the argument for abandonment is not fatally linked to the demise of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The party which will be meeting shortly to try to figure out what to do with its trainwreck of a primary race also expects politically traumatized, war-fatigued, ethnically divided Iraqis to accomplish in short order something the Dems can’t seem to manage. Political cohesion.
With thanks to Memorandum on the roundup, with related thoughts from Jawa, Strata-sphere and Dollard.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:49 am on Wednesday, May 28, 2008
4 Responses to “Woe Is Them”
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May 28th, 2008 at 10:46 am
That can’t be right. the Messiahbama told we were involved in an endless unwinable war.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Al Zarqawi advised that killing shi’ites (”not real Muslims”) in Iraq in the name of jihad was A-OK with Allah’s plan for the universe.
As noted, the would be handlers in the far away reaches of Waziristan couldn’t control the blood lust of that particular criminal.
It is so noteworthy that the majority of the Iraqis themselves eventually found the courage (and the means) to turn against the slaughterers and madmen in their midst.
I don’t believe the Obamamessiah has ever taken note of that excellent fact.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Would only that the American people had but a fraction the courage of the Iraqis who turned back these animals.
Hard to picture in this day and age.
June 7th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
“Would only that the American people had but a fraction the courage of the Iraqis who turned back these animals.”
Honestly, the Iraqis have been pretty damned craven up until they started winning. And that winning has only happened thanks to the courageous fraction of the American people.
I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that life under Hussein’s regime was basically a completely soul-crushing experience, and that I might wind up a coward if I had lived such a life. But let’s give ourselves some credit for their sudden change of character: we lifted them out of that mire. I’m fine with accepting all the screwed up things the US has done, so long as we acknowledge the good as well.