Posted on 05/15/2007 9:58:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
LONDON (Reuters) - A U.S. troop pullout from Iraq would leave the country as a potent launchpad for international terrorism and Washington would be forced to go back in within a couple of years, a leading al Qaeda expert said on Tuesday.
Rohan Gunaratna told a security conference at Lloyd's of London insurance market that Iraq, like Afghanistan in the 1990s, would become a "terrorist Disneyland" where al Qaeda could build up its strength unchallenged.
If U.S., British and other coalition troops withdrew from Iraq in the next year, he said, "certainly the scale of attacks that would be mounted inside Iraq, and using Iraq as a launching pad to strike other Western countries -- countries in Europe, North America - would become such that after two or three years, the U.S. forces will have to go back to Iraq."
The Singapore-based academic and writer said the epicenter of international terrorism had already switched from Afghanistan to Iraq. "In many ways, the terrorist threat has now shifted 1,500 miles closer to Europe."
Republican President George W. Bush is locked in a standoff with a Democratic-led Congress over funding for the war in Iraq, now in its fifth year, in which more than 3,400 American troops have been killed.
Democrats are pushing for a time frame for withdrawal, something the White House opposes as sending the wrong message to U.S. forces, allies and enemies alike. Some Republicans are also questioning the war more publicly.
Britain, the leading U.S. partner in Iraq, is scaling back its troops there, although the idea of an immediate pullout was rejected this week by Gordon Brown, the man expected to succeed Bush's close ally Tony Blair as prime minister next month.
Addressing the same conference, a top British security official acknowledged home-grown Islamist militants had exploited the British troop presence in Afghanistan and Iraq for propaganda purposes.
But the official, Sir Richard Mottram, said any decision on withdrawal should be taken based on its impact on the two countries, not its effect on the views of radicals in Britain.
"I'd be very cautious about withdrawing from Afghanistan in circumstances where the field was left to the Taliban," said Mottram, Permanent Secretary for Intelligence, Security and Resilience at the Cabinet Office. He declined comment on Iraq.
A former head of Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 described Gunaratna's analysis as convincing.
"Clearly al Qaeda are focusing on Iraq now, and focusing on some sort of propaganda victory over the United States," Sir Richard Dearlove told reporters.
"Whether that's an actual victory or not, if they can claim in the Muslim world that they've done well, then that puts us in a very difficult position. This is really an aspect of withdrawal that hasn't been properly considered. That's why I think we can't just let Iraq go its own way."
Makes sense.
AG might find a staging area but Iran will also use it as well. The fallout on this will be ugly.
I mean, it is so obvious that Iraq would have to be reconquered at great cost after a pullout, that I am hoping by election time the Democrats are caught in a bind. A squeeze between poll driven politics and the stark reality of Iraq as a base for AlQueda
Pull out now, count on going back in, in the middle of the new President’s term, just as reelection is getting started.
Reuters may mean this as a warning to any future American Dem. President.
Wanting to quit something simply because it is difficult is not an American value or a true American trait.
We're going to win this thing. It's going to work. We still have a hard road ahead but the road IS being traversed with progress.
It would be a lot easier if the domestic enemy (liberals, the media, the hand-wringers, the surrender monkeys) would just get out of the way.
Well D'oh!
Coming out of the WH doesn't work anymore. Speeches don't work. They forfeited the publics attention on such issues by failing to respond for over 2 years.....The public is now tuned out to messaging coming from the WH.
A WOT supporting 527 should have been in place and fully resourced (behind the scenes by WH/RNC) two years ago now.
It is shameful our warriors are giving all 24/7 down range.....yet the WH/RNC has allowed the PR aspect of this WOT to be lost thus far....
Someone please help me try to understand something. For months the argument has been cut and run or stay till victory. Could someone tell me what victory means. Are we going to “take the hill”, or take over the city, or bomb the enemy’s airports and runways, or bomb their, bases, or their armaments, take out their weapons, their planes, their ships? Are we going to do any of those usual “benchmarks” of victory. Or are we going to continue driving around the countryside in Humvees getting blown up. So far, that’s pretty much the description of our mission there, as I see it. I’m not sure why the administration hasn’t been able to better define the mission, but I, who likes to consider myself somewhat informed, is clueless to what the mission is or what our methods are to achieve whatever the mission is.
Once again the United States has taken a bad situation and made it worse. WE BETTER FINISH the job...if not I will never support another military operation. We never finish the job. One side or the other always stops us...the dems or the republicans. We shall see how this ends.
Hmmm and "It a Small World" after all....damm I hate that ride
That's how the media portrays it.
They're woefully distorting it - and deliberately so that people will have exactly the impression you have.
MSM is slowly setting the stage for the Dummycrats to back away from defeat at a date certain, and to let down their nutball base in the bargain. They’ve had their fun, and now realize that Bush is not going to cave on this issue. Since the rest of the world knows but won’t admit that this Terror Disney theory is true (particularly the Saudis, who are soiling their robes at the thought we might actually leave), they need to start setting the table for the Dems to weave suitable excuses to leave the troops there. (in their view it is only a win if Bush does the deed).
Don’t wait for the MSM to spoon feed you. All you have to do is read the actual documents which outline in detail the answers to your questions.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/
Don’t bury your heads in the sand.
I had said it over and over again that some of us in Iraq and America are sending wrong messages to the terrorists and the dictators behind them; in fact I wasn’t surprised when I saw Zawahiri appear on al-Jazeera to announce America’s defeat, not long after Reid did.
Zawahiri claims al-Qaeda has won and Reid claims America has lost but I see only a war that’s still ongoing and I see no victory for al-Qaeda or any other entity. On the contrary I see that al-Qaeda has the shortest stick.
We are going through a fierce war and sending more wrong messages could only further complicate an already complicated situation and create more mess that would be exploited by Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia for their own purposes—more iron-fist control on the peoples and treasures of the region and pushing the middle east to crises and confrontations with the world not forgetting spreading their dark, backward ideologies.
The American forces should stay in Iraq and yes, reinforcements should be sent if the situation required. Not only that, these forces should be prepared to expand their operations whenever and wherever necessary in the region to strike hard on the nests of evil that not only threaten the middle east but seeking to blackmail the whole world in the ugliest way through pursuing nuclear weapons in a feverish desire to destroy themselves along with everyone else. It’s a delusional obsession with power derived from the false belief that only they possess absolute justice while denying the right to exist to anyone who disagrees with them.
We must keep fighting those criminals and tyrants until they realize that the freedom-loving peoples of the region are not alone. Freedom and living in dignity are the aspirations of all mankind and that’s what unites us; not death and suicide. When freedom-lovers in other countries reach out for us they are working for the future of everyone tyrants and murderers like Ahmedinejad, Nesrallah, Assad and Qaddafi must realize that we are not their possessions to pass on to their sons or henchmen. We belong to the human civilization and that was the day we gave what we gave to our land and other civilizations. They can’t take out our humanity with their ugly crimes and they can’t force us to back off. The world should ask them to leave our land before asking the soldiers of freedom to do so.
The cost of liberating Europe was enormous in blood and treasure and thereafter it took half a century of American military presence to protect Europe’s nations from subsequent threats—now if that made sense during a cold war, and it did, then I don’t understand why would anyone demand a pullout from Iraq (and maybe later the middle east) when the enemies are using every evil technique, from booby trapped dead animals to hijacked civilian aircrafts to kill us and destroy the human civilization.
Yes my friends, I will call for war just as powerfully the bad guys do and I must show them that I’m stronger than they are because those do not understand the language of civilization and reason. They understand only power, and with power they took over their countries and held their peoples hostages. Everything they accomplished was through absolute control over the assets of their nations through murder, torture, repression and intimidation.
The policy of the United States and her allies needs to adjust to make better use of the energy God-or nature or whatever you name it-blessed them with. We need to see a firm policy not afraid of making tough decisions replace the Byzantine debate of withdrawal. This became America’s destiny the day it became a superpower. A destiny to show responsibility toward her own people and toward the world, and running away from this responsibility won’t do any good.
Otherwise those who prefer to bury their heads in the dirt today will be cursed forever for abandoning their duty when they were most capable. I don’t understand why someone who has all the tools for victory would refuse to fight the enemy that reminds us every day that it’s evil with all the daily beheadings, torture and violations of all humane laws and values.
Some will keep on blaming America and her policies and they will consider anything America did and does wrong whether America stayed or left, fought or ran away, negotiated or boycotted. There will always be those who blame America for everything that goes wrong in this world but that doesn’t mean America has to listen to them. America instead should listen to the spirit of America and what it stands for.
Reaping the fruit won’t be today, it will be in the future after patience and great fighting.
Posted by Mohammed @ 23:18
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
WHO IS REUTERS?? ;)
You are so correct.
Under Saddam, Iraq was more like a Terrorist Holiday Inn Express.
I've got a question. Are the Iraqi people (and culture) capable of maintaining a democracy? I don't think so. I'm all for winning, but given the culture, we'll never be able to leave.
Q: How long would the US have to stay in Iraq to prevent it becoming a terrorist Disneyland when we leave?
A: Forever.
Q: So one time is a good as another to pull out?
A: Well, yeah.
I'm sorry. I'm weary of answering those questions. I'm not going to do it.
I have cut through the media's BS on here for over three years now, trying to give people the truth of what is really happening in Iraq. I have sat at the keyboard during big events and reported what was going on around me live. I have debunked the media and Democrats to FReepers, Congress reps and others. Over and over and over again.
I'm tired of the naysayers, the cut-and-runners, the news-sheep and the glass-is-half-empty crowd. I'm taking a break from it. I'm having fun. I NEED a break from it.
Watch CNN. They'll tell you what you want to hear. You'll just argue with me and I don't have the energy for it tonight. You have already formed your opinion, so why bother?
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