Video: U.S. troops, Iraqis celebrate victory over Al Qaeda — by dropping phat beats

Hugh Fitzgerald, co-host to Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch – “The fact that some Sunni Arab tribes have “turned on” Al Qaeda [also know as al-Qaeda in Iraq. Not the real al-Qaeda.] does not mean that now those Sunni tribes are “allied with us.” They aren’t.They are simply getting revenge for the Al Qaeda attacks on them. That’s it.

No change of heart about Infidel Americans. No change of heart about Kurds. No change of heart about the Shi’a, who if not quite “Rafidite dogs” nonetheless should not be permitted to lord it over the Sunni Arabs.

The interpretation — misinterpretation — of the split between the relatively tiny (though murderously effective) Al Qaeda group [also know as al-Qaeda in Iraq. Not the real al-Qaeda.], and the much larger group of Sunnis who will never acquiesce in their loss of power to the Shi’a, and never — it is out of the question — be true friends, or friends at all, of the Americans, show the limits of the current events.

Joe Klein – “Recently, in his [Bush's] desperation, starting with his speech at the Naval War College on June 28, he [Bush] has been telling an outright lie, and he repeated it now, awkwardly, in Cleveland: “The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is the crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims, trying to stop the advance of a system based upon liberty.”

That is not true [and this does not refer to the fact that the 19 9/11 terrorists themselves are dead]. The group doing the most spectacular bombings in Iraq was named al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia [also know as al-Qaeda in Iraq] by its founder, Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, now deceased, in an attempt to aggrandize his reputation in jihadi-world. It is a sliver group, representing no more than 5% of the Sunni insurgency.

It shares a philosophy, but not much else [Kind of like if I got a bunch of neighborhood guys together and we got Oakland Raiders T-shirts and called ourselves the Oakland Raiders in the Neighborhood. We would not really be the Oakland Raiders.], with the real al-Qaeda, which operates out of Pakistan. In fact, al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia [also know as al-Qaeda in Iraq] has been criticized in the past by the operational director of the real al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for its wanton carnage directed at Muslims.

Bush’s lie, which assumes a lack of knowledge on the part of the American people, was compounded by an outrageous bit of spin: “We just started [the surge],” the President said. General David Petraeus “got all the troops there a couple of weeks ago.” In fact, Operation Fardh al-Qanoon, the military effort to secure Baghdad, has been going on since February.

There is the plan being devised by General Petraeus’ staff in Iraq, which envisions a slow draw-down, paced by the Army’s troop-rotation schedule; force levels would begin to ebb in March 2008 and reach pre-surge levels six months later. And there is more radical planning in the Pentagon, which would halve the current troop levels in a year. The growing friction between Petraeus and the Pentagon brass, with the generals desperate to save their Army before it breaks, will be a story to watch in the next few months.

None of these machinations have much to do with the situation on the ground in Iraq. The political situation there has grown dire. There is a wicked little battle brewing between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his most powerful Shi’ite supporter, Muqtada al-Sadr. “In just a few months, al-Maliki has moved from ‘You can’t go after al-Sadr’ to seeing [al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia] as a serious threat to his power,”

Ambassador Crocker told me in Baghdad a few weeks ago. Both al-Maliki and al-Sadr are plotting and scheming to oust each other. The Sadrist parliamentary bloc is planning to force a no-confidence vote on al-Maliki that could conceivably bring down the government. Given the amount of time it takes for the Iraqis to organize a ruling coalition–5 1/2 months last time–President Bush may find himself alone in Iraq, without a local ally, for the indefinite future.”

If you support the troops, can you really support this as it is?

MB4 on July 13, 2007 at 10:58 PM

Al Qaeda [also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq. Not the real al-Qaeda.]

1) All roads start in Iraq.
2) All roads end in Iraq.
3) The Sun revolves around Iraq.
4) The moon revolves around Iraq.
5) The stars revolve around Iraq.
6) If the United States does not keep sufficient troop mass in Iraq, the orbital stability of the Earth will become unbalanced and all Muslim terrorists will slide into America.

MB4 on July 14, 2007 at 1:44 AM

We have rebuilt schools, new roadways, sewer and electric infrastructure (It is very strange then that so many Iraqis have fled Iraq. If that were true they should be going in the opposite direction.)

MB4 on July 14, 2007 at 1:54 AM

csdeven – “The surge is under way and needs more time.”

The “Surge” has been under way since February. It has been a “Rolling Surge” and while it would not be completely fair to give the start month as February, it is not fair at all to say as Bush has “We just started”.

It may not even make sense to call it a “surge”.

Surge: A sudden, transient increase.

It was not sudden and I do not think that if Bush prevails that the “surge” will be anything like transient.

“In conflict, straightforward actions generally lead to entanglement, surprising actions generally lead to victory.”
- Sun Tzu

“There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.”
- Sun Tzu

MB4 on July 14, 2007 at 2:38 AM

Is four years and 4 months and counting, with no end in sight, other than when Bush leaves office protracted for America?

I would say yes.

WWII, for America, lasted less than 4 years.

“We need to get leaders who understand it.”

Your name rings a bell. Did you ever post at Jihad Watch?

MB4 on July 14, 2007 at 3:24 AM

Remember Sun Tzu said protracted war. I don’t think that he would necessarily have anything against periodic battles of opportunity.

MB4 on July 14, 2007 at 3:33 AM