Al-Qaeda’s organisation is weaker, but the message still spreadsIraq had nothing at all to do with the 9/11 attack or al Qaeda... Nothing At All!Published: July 5 2007 21:51 | Last updated: July 5 2007 21:51
Less than a week ago London had an extraordinarily lucky escape when two car bombs failed to explode in the centre of the city. Another terrorist attack at Glasgow airport proved equally futile. Terrorist incompetence helped the police detain eight suspects in swift succession. But the incidents underlined a more disturbing reality: that in nearly six years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the phenomenon of militant Islamism disseminated by al-Qaeda has not been tamed. Rather, it has spread to new groups and new parts of the world. ...
... Jihadism is not a single phenomenon and cannot be defeated by a single strategy. As peddled by al-Qaeda, it exploits perceived humiliation and grievances, whether in Iraq or the Palestinian territories, in Pakistan or the immigrant communities of western Europe. Good security measures are essential. But jihadism will not be defeated by a “war on terror” that actually glorifies the confrontation. Rather, the grievances must be understood and the emptiness of the ideology exposed. Hearts and minds must be won, not just bloody confrontations.
At the same time Bush was announcing "Mission Accomplished" the occupation of Iraq was lost. The failure to bring in enough occupation troops to keep civil order and quickly begin reconstruction doomed Iraq to insurgent attacks and civil war.
There aren't any "do overs"; the "surge" is a useless gesture, good only to postpone the admission that the occupation is a failure. Only a political solution worked out amongst Iraqi's can end the violence in Iraq. The current government of Iraq is incapable of hammering out any sort of solution, it is a dysfunction conglomeration of corrupt former exiles who do not have the trust of the Iraqi people. Using the U.S. military to prop up an Iraqi government that is making no real effort to build a democratic Iraq, is only deepening the conflict and spreading the violence.
This UPDATE shows exactly how dysfunctional the Iraqi government is:
Jul 9, 11:34 PM EDTThe occupation of Iraq is far more valuable to al-Qaeda as a propaganda tool than it is to the U.S. as way to "fight terrorism". The U.S. military is being worn down while al-Qaeda grows stronger.
Official: Iraq Gov't Missed All Targets
By ANNE FLAHERTY and ANNE GEARAN
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A progress report on Iraq will conclude that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has not met any of its targets for political, economic and other reforms, speeding up the Bush administration's reckoning on what to do next, a U.S. official said Monday.
... (more)
An increasing number of Republican politicians are finally seeing the light or mustering the courage to say what they've thought all along.
From Reuters:FromJuly 8, 2007Powell tried to talk Bush out of warTHE former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.
“I tried to avoid this war,” Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. “I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.”
Powell has become increasingly outspoken about the level of violence in Iraq, which he believes is in a state of civil war. “The civil war will ultimately be resolved by a test of arms,” he said. “It’s not going to be pretty to watch, but I don’t know any way to avoid it. It is happening now.”
He added: “It is not a civil war that can be put down or solved by the armed forces of the United States.” ...(more)
...Following are some key Republicans challenging Bush on Iraq.
* SEN. GORDON SMITH: Smith joined critics of the war in late 2006. Delivering one of the harsher criticisms of the war, Smith of Oregon said on the Senate floor in December that the war might even be "criminal."
* SEN. CHUCK HAGEL: Hagel has been a harsh critic of Bush's handling of the war and co-sponsored a non-binding resolution condemning his proposal to send more troops to Iraq. The Nebraska senator called the buildup "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam" and said Bush was playing "a ping pong game with American lives." Hagel's comments drew a rebuke in January from Vice President Dick Cheney.
* SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared in June that Bush's strategy was not working and troops should start leaving. In a Senate floor speech, the Indiana senator said the United States should draw down its troops in Iraq and redeploy some of them in the region before it was too late to do so politically -- before the U.S. 2008 presidential campaign gets into full swing and partisan confrontation limits options.
* SEN. GEORGE VOINOVICH: In June, Voinovich of Ohio sent Bush a letter "expressing his belief that our nation must begin to develop a comprehensive plan for our gradual military disengagement from Iraq." As with Lugar, Voinovich is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
* SEN. PETE DOMENICI: A day after Bush appealed to Americans to be more patient with the unpopular war, the six-term New Mexico senator, who is up for re-election next year, urged a new course. "I am unwilling to continue our current strategy," Domenici, who serves on the Senate's defense appropriations subcommittee, said in a statement on July 5.
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