There’s been much frustration for those who believed Democrats when they campaigned that they would pull us out of Iraq, as soon as possible, and then voted accordingly in the last congressional election. The lack of success on that ……

It seems Al Qaeda in Iraq’s leadership has decided that discretion is the better part of valor and fled redeployed to Afghanistan and Pakistan: The leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and several of his top lieutenants…

Good to hear from you once again…

But at one point in one of our conversations, one of the young men showed my a small leaflet, in Arabic, extolling the virtues of the current “jihad.” Almost immediately, they all said this is NOT the jihad the Koran says all good Moslems must undertake daily. They said this “jihad” is nothing more than another Mahdi wannabe trying to take control of the Koran, and Islam, for his own benefit. In other words a false Prophet.

One of the other guys then said something really profound. Said something to the effect of “If this was the real struggle to bring Islam to all the world, then why is AQ losing?”

He went on to cite a number of bits from bin Ladin and others right after 9-11, that AQ and Islam would soon ride across the world, that the West would fall on their faces before Islam, that the victory of Islam was in their grasp, and so one and so forth. He, and the others, pointed out that jihadis movements failed or were faltering in any number of places around the world. That the bulk of the jihadis, to their understanding, are common criminals and thugs, just louthing platitudes from the Koran, but just plain thugs through and through.

So, my fence-sitting Moslem friends…IF this is(was) the final struggle for the total victory of Islam, why is AQ losing?

As Believers, can you explain why Allah would permit such humiliations of these “noble” warriors? Why are the jihadis in Iraq using women? Children? Mentally handicapped? Why are they running away? And why has Allah not made the entire global nation of the Faithful rise up alongside AQ, willingly, sacrificing themselves by the thousands and thousands so Islam will be victorious in this war and bring down the apostate West?

One would think that if this jihad thing was good in the eyes of Allah, Allah would be doing everything under the sun to make sure it was working out?

Think “Tora Bora” or even Fallujah where they leave a relatively small number of fighters in place to hold military forces while the leadership escapes to live to fight another day. This is classic vanguard action.

In the overall, scheme of things, for all those years everyone has claimed that bin Laden wanted the US distracted in Iraq so he could do other things, this would be the actual moment that was exactly true.

As long as Iraq gives even a remote appearance of instability, generals who have just won a victory will be overly cautious in letting it slip away. More troops will stay in place while Afghanistan goes to the dogs.

Politically, geographically, economically and logistically, Iraq is more valuable than Afghanistan. However, it would be extremely ignorant to let the Talibs and AQ get enough power they can overrun or try to overrun entire bases or turn Afghanistan into IED central.

I think we need to be cautious in Iraq, but not so cautious that we handicap ourselves in the long run.

“Hey Sarge, where are the dirty bastards?

J_Gocht on July 31, 2008 at 9:22 AM

“Hey Medic, just don’t look too conspicuous, it draws fire.”

How can that be true if the infidels destroy them in Iraq

Elementary. If they destroy infidels elsewhere. Allah doesn’t care where they destroy infidels just as long as they destroy them.

AQI leaders bugging out?

I’d bet they read it first in the New York Times, Al Qaeda’s chief source of info, and propaganda machine!

Does that really make any sense? …
… Normally, a commander that had a commitment to victory would stay in the theater to direct his forces at this point, not suddenly remove himself and his top lieutenants to a place a thousand miles away for “consultations”.

If you live by the code, “Run away, and live to fight another day”, then yeah, this makes perfect sense.

Remember we are dealing with Islamic not Western culture and priorities. In every single battle of this war the top AQ leadership has run to ground in every dangerous situation leaving their troops and lieutenants to die for them.

Sweet.

Iraqi intelligence says that al-Qaeda in Iraq’s leadership has taken a powder. The main leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has taken several of his top commanders and fled to Afghanistan or Pakistan, leaving behind an organization in chaos.

Syria too. As the WaPo story says:

In a sign of what U.S. officials describe as their success in eliminating Sunni insurgents inside Iraq, the American military has recently identified an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader outside the country as a major target, according to the senior U.S. intelligence analyst.

The leader, Abu Ghadiya, the nom de guerre of a Mosul native whose real name is said to be Badran Turki Hishan al-Mazidih, was identified in February as a senior al-Qaeda in Iraq leader based in Syria who controls the flow of the majority of the group’s foreign fighters, money and weapons into Iraq, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

whitetop on July 31, 2008 at 10:11 AM

You da man “W”!
That’s what I wanna see!

“…Pick a spot far away from our own spot, send our warriors to that spot, and the enemy will come to us so that they can have their chance to play the game of their choice. Keemo on July 31, 2008 at 10:08 AM

Bejeebus Keemo, were you ever a soldier once?

Holy Jesus, Mary and Joseph…

“…send our warriors to that spot, and the enemy will come to us so that they can have their chance to play the game of their choice.

Hot damn, where can I get some of that?

Lovingly,
Abu

I’m 54 years old. My country has been at war, or living in the treat of war for most of my life time. History tells us that mankind has a thing about war. Based on this “history of war” thing, it’s probably a good thing to have a really powerful military just in case some country wants a piece of our asses. It’s also a good thing (if we are to be in a war) to have the battle grounds be somewhere other than on our home soil. Pick a spot far away from our own spot, send our warriors to that spot, and the enemy will come to us so that they can have their chance to play the game of their choice.

Not real complicated; been going on for centuries now.

“…My sources for information are pretty dang reliable. AQ, Iranians, Syrians, & others; they all have come to Iraq to take a shot at killing Americans.
Keemo on July 31, 2008 at 9:42 AM

Dang…I hate when that happens…!

What, pray tell… might we do to rectify that revoltin’ situation..?

“Many of them are simply “hired thugs” trying to carve out a living in a region where “trades” are hard to come by. Does it really matter; they all are out there killing innocent people…”

I seem to remember “Rummy” sayin’ something like that?

“…just a bunch of dead enders.”
“…it’s only a matter of time.”

Yeah airhead… just 1500 years more or less!

I have had several family members fighting in this war from the very beginning; (3) of them remain in Iraq today. My sources for information are pretty dang reliable. AQ, Iranians, Syrians, & others; they all have come to Iraq to take a shot at killing Americans.

“Their fatal mistake was killing Americans on American soil; which was an AQ mission.
Keemo on July 31, 2008 at 9:32 AM

Damn Keemo, that part you got right…!

Congradulations…!