IRAQ - Update

IRAQ
6/17/07

We want to expand on two salient points highlighted in our sketch of May/10, a piece by the way which continues to provide an anchor or foundation in understanding the origins of this conflict, its direct linkage to our national security.
Wynton Hall, a fellow at the Hoover Institute noted recently that President Bush’s woes are best summed up with a line from the movie, "Cool Hand Luke": "What we’ve got here is failure to communicate," or in this case the inability or unwillingness of the administration to capitalize on its successes in Iraq, betraying its own good cause as we said earlier by not staying on message. Blaming the liberal media is a cop out; they’ll always try to muddle the message. So? Produce something weekly which is simple - tamper proof. Then play the security angle, Bush’s greatest strength. As Hall suggested, why not a user-friendly web site: "Terrorists are trying to kill us. We are tirelessly trying to kill them. Thank you for your patience."

The administration must highlight positive trends like the "Anbar Awakening," featured in our sketch of May/10. This is of course the uniting of the province’s Sunni Arab tribes against al Qaeda, sparked by a combination of al Qaeda atrocities and the skillful counterinsurgency techniques of US forces which together convinced Sunni leaders that enough was enough. And last week leaders in the Salah-ad-Din province north of Baghdad agreed to work with the Iraqi government and US forces to oust al Qaeda there. Al Qaeda has responded in typical fashion - the campaign of atrocities, most recently the destruction of the two remaining minarets of the al-Askariya mosque. This intimidation worked before. No longer. Today the murders, torture and destruction simply remind provincial councils that al Qaeda is the real enemy, the central point to our earlier comment.

Al Qaeda is in Iraq to destabilize the country, not as a response to any grievance but a calculated response to real or imagined Western weakness. What the liberal press terms a civil war is simply the very transparent product of al Qaeda’s efforts. But Iraqis have increasingly shown that they are not interested; when al Qaeda makes itself comfortable in an Iraqi town, it begins to enforce its absurd and intolerant version of Islam (vegetables in the market to be segregated by sex - too much!). Locals resist and al Qaeda thugs punish them with an increasing scale of atrocities. This is what led to the "Anbar Awakening". According to Fred Kagan, "Iraq’s Sunnis have tolerated al Qaeda’s presence past years for one reason: Terrorists make good fighters. As long as the Sunnis thought they could use violence to regain control of Iraq, or against the Shiites, al Qaeda was a useful, if unpleasant ally." But now the Sunnis understand that they best forget regaining control of the military - it won’t happen, and, make the best political deal they can.

Senator Joe Lieberman recently returned from Iraq and noted that the key consideration now is, "Do we consolidate and build on the successes that the new strategy has achieved, keeping al Qaeda on the run, or do we abandon them?" And Leiberman noted too as we have so many times before that, "American soldiers are not fighting in Iraq only so that Iraqis can pass a law to share oil revenues. They are fighting because a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, overrun by al Qaeda and Iran would be a catastrophe for American national security and our safety here at home." Could not have said it better ourselves, Senator Joe.