Posted on 07/20/2008 12:24:07 AM PDT by Dawnsblood
If the United States had planned to draw Al Qaeda and its adherents out of Pakistan and into Iraq for a battle in the heart of the Islamic region, it is very unlikely that any official would acknowledge that in public; neither verbally nor in writing. In setting the stage for battling Al Qaeda and invading Iraq, to separate the region and the people from supporting either out of any sense of ethnic or religious loyalty, the United States had spoken deliberately. In both cases, insisting that the United States was not interested in making war on Islam, Arabs or any greater polity, but had specific, definitive targets and reasons. In doing so, they hoped to mitigate any significant mobilization of nations or the populations as had occurred during the Afghan/Russo War.
Already, the apparent narrative of the war to this date has been written. Not that the United States had planned to draw Al Qaeda to Iraq, but that Al Qaeda took advantage of the mistake in opening a second front. In doing so, providing AL Qaeda an opportunity to recruit more followers, inflict more damage and drain the United States coffers and political will.
If it was not planned, it does seem a tragically fortuitous stumble on to the very strategy that might be the end of Al Qaeda in the greater Middle East. It remains to be seen whether it signals their defeat in Pakistan.
The question remains, why did Al Qaeda believe that they had to go to fight in Iraq?
(Excerpt) Read more at thedonovan.com ...
It seems to me, Iraq had a lot more to fight for than Afghanistan. I also believe that Saddam and Bin Laden struck up a deal.
Thirdly, I think Bin Laden believed that after a few body bags, we would have packed up and went home.... just as the Democrats have been wanting to do. Before the troop surge, it must have seemed to them they won seeing all the pressures Bush was getting from home but Bush took a lot different approach and that is what sunk the Al Qaeda’s hopes.
That... and Al Sadr pulled back for a while so our troops could focus a lot on driving Al Qaeda back home.
This seems backwards. Al Qaeda came to Iraq and has been defeated (good plan if that was our intention). They have lost thousands including many leaders of this cult. They have only just begun to regroup in Afghanistan (via Pakistan).
If this was our plan, it has worked beautifully. Now that they are gathering in Pakistan, new strategies are needed.
I have little doubt that the US will continue as required and wipe out this Pakistan threat - regardless of the Pakistan resistance to our border incursions.
IMO, the overall stategy was to take the fight to the ME...the logical place to do this is Iraq, Saddam + UN + the Oil for Food crooks had to be neutered and it was obvious that Al Queda could not resist the opportunity to take on the ‘weak horse’. No matter what the Global Left thinks this has worked! Where would we be vis a vis Iran if we were not engaged on the ground over there?
I’ve been saying this for a long time...
David Warren had this all figured out by July 2003. His “flypaper strategy” theory was much discussed at that time.
http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?id=237
The thought of it being revenge makes a lot of us get uncomfortable or think "don't be silly," but if we had not taken "revenge" the US would have lost prestige in that part of the world and "revenge" being the absolutely correct procedure as far as the ME populations are concerned, we got a lot less opposition from the other countries in the area than otherwise would have been the case. Revenge is the overriding necessity to them. It is a "family honor" thing. Everyone should be familiar with that now.
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