Al Qaeda Rebuilt While GWB Fiddled With Iraq genre: Just Jihad & Polispeak & Six Degrees of Speculation

George Fiddled

What a difference over four years of war in Iraq have made in the war on terror. In the slow blink of a blind eye, we are now being told that al Qaeda has fully reconstituted itself to a level similar to that before 9/11. Thank goodness we took the war to al Qaeda in Iraq. I hate to imagine what would have happened if we would have stayed focused on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his extremist efforts to rebuild in Pakistan.

From Newsweek:

But the new NIE’s conclusions about Al Qaeda activities in Pakistan, along with the increasing signs of jihadi militants flowing out of Iraq, suggest that the U.S. counterterrorism community may now be facing the worst of both worlds: a reconstituted Al Qaeda leadership coupled with a growing and dispersed worldwide army of angry jihadis inflamed by the U.S. presence in Iraq. The new document’s conclusions also could make it more difficult for the White House to argue, as it frequently has in the past, that President Bush’s post-9/11 efforts have made the country “safer."

The primary development that has allowed all this to happen, U.S. officials say, was the peace agreement signed last year between the Pakistani government of President Pervez Musharraf and pro-Taliban tribal leaders in the remote region of North Waziristan. The withdrawal of Pakistani troops under that agreement gave Al Qaeda leaders new freedom to operate with relative impunity, officials said. "Clearly, they are resurgent," said one senior U.S. intelligence official about Al Qaeda. (The official, who is familiar with the NIE’s findings, asked not to be identified because the document remains classified.)

From MSNBC:

LONDON - Despite losses around the world, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists, and its ranks are growing because of the conflict in Iraq, a leading think tank warned Tuesday.

Al-Qaida still has a functioning leadership despite the death or capture of key figures, and estimates suggest al-Qaida operates in more than 60 nations around the world, the International Institute of Strategic Studies said in its Strategic Survey 2003-4.

The terrorist group poses a growing threat to Western interests and attacks are likely to increase, the institute said.

Progress against al-Qaida “is likely to accelerate only with currently elusive political developments that would broadly depress recruitment and motivation," the report said.

Perhaps I'm vindictive, but I'm sure all of this "new" information has been the contention of numerous critics of the Bush administration...all of whom were summarily discounted as partisan hacks intent upon treating the war on terror as a tool in a political arsenal. Now that the naysayer’s are being proven to have been on target, who should we conclude to have been the political obstructionists?

While George Bush's fragile ego was being kept safe from a fate similar to that of Humpty Dumpty through the fabrication of countless revisions and reassessments of his war in Iraq, the American public was allowed to be placed in the cross-hairs of terrorists’ intent on exceeding the carnage of 9/11. Even more enraging is the facts that those who objected to the Bush brain trust’s banana republic banter were painted to be unpatriotic and sympathetic to the terrorists.

In retrospect, one must ask who actually had the better plan to protect the interests of the American people. I'm not suggesting that George Bush and his neocon advisors were ill-intentioned (I can't actually discern that from my vantage); rather I would posit that their ideological intransigence coupled with the associated blind confidence one would expect led them to misguided decisions as well as an unwillingness to rationally explore reasonable alternatives.

If the new assessment is correct, it begs the question of what we have actually achieved in Iraq after four plus years and nearly a half a trillion dollars. If al Qaeda is, in fact, all that it was prior to 9/11, may I suggest that George Bush's stubborn indifference is far too costly, frighteningly flawed, and fully unacceptable?

Image courtesy of www.new-enlightenment.com

Daniel DiRito | July 11, 2007 | 5:35 PM
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Comments

1 On July 12, 2007 at 7:25 AM, Rainbow Demon wrote —

You are right on on this assessment, Daniel (as usual). Unfortunately, I think we all may be paying the price soon, for BU$HCO's failed experiment in Iraq. Here's my meager attempt at humor - (please excuse the profanity) - if you'd like to take a look.

I must say I enjoy reading your commentaries on so many news stories. When I didn't find you over at 'Bring It On', I moseyed on over here. Now it has become a regular 'clicking' point for me.

Thanks & Peace,
=RD=

Thought Theater at Blogged

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