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| Terror Networks |
| Iraq = Vietnam . . . for al-Qaida! |
| 2008-06-17 |
| Rich Lowry, National Review Lately, the Iraq war has looked more and more like another Vietnam — not for us, but for al-Qaeda. CIA Director Michael Hayden says the terror group has suffered “near-strategic defeat” in Iraq. It has been routed from Anbar, Diyala, and Baghdad provinces, and now is getting a beating in its last stronghold of Mosul, in the north. It is reviled by the Iraqi populace, and its downward trajectory began with indigenous uprisings at its expense. When the United States lost Vietnam, it lost credibility and saw an emboldened Marxist-Leninist offensive around the third world. Al-Qaeda is a global insurgency and not a nation-state — and thus its circumstances are radically different from ours 40 years ago — but it has suffered a similar reputational loss. The Iraq war had been a powerful recruiting tool for al-Qaeda when it was winning. No more. Osama bin Laden rendered what is called the “bandwagon effect” in international relations — the tendency of states to go along with the dominant power — in his homespun Arabic analogy of people liking the strong horse over the weak horse. In Iraq, al-Qaeda’s proverbial horse is a broken-down nag. . . . A group devoted to overthrowing secular Arab rulers and fighting America has overwhelmingly identified itself with the mass slaughter of Muslim innocents. Its methods might not have produced revulsion in the broader Muslim world if they were succeeding. Instead, in Iraq, it’s been wanton murder in a losing cause. Like we did in Vietnam, al-Qaeda in Iraq has run afoul of nationalism and local culture, although in spectacular fashion. It has trampled on the prerogatives of tribal sheiks and issued lunatic decrees, like its banning of the local bread in Mosul — sammoun — because it did not exist at the time of the Prophet. Like we did in Vietnam, it overrelied on favored tactics even after they proved ineffective or counterproductive; with us, it was ever more bombing runs in the North and search-and-destroy missions in the South, while in al-Qaeda’s it has been mass-casualty suicide bombings. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #5 OOPSIES, forgot to add TOPIX > VARIOUS > MCCAIN ADVISOR: ODDS OF A CATASTROPHIC NUCLEAR ATTACK AGZ THE US IS INCREASING/RISING. AM coffee hasn't kicked in yet. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-17 20:09 |
| #4 2008 - 2012 POTUS Period > IMO, its more correct to say LOOMING NEAR/GEOSTRATEGIC STALEMATE vv November victory for Dem Barack Obama. The USA has been successful in entrenching itslef REGIONALLY-GLOBALLY in the ME-World - HOWEVER, its FORMAL = OFFICIAL = OVERT CONTROL AND DOMIN OF FUTURE OWG-NWO IS NOT YET ASSURED. On RADICAL ISLAM'S PART > SUCCESSFUL US ENTRENCHMENT HAS NOT YET STOPPED THE W-I-P KNOWN AS NUCLEAR ISLAMISM + NUCLEAR RADICALISM + PAN-ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION, nor even BUDDING NUCLEAR ASIA. Many Muslim and Non-Muslim nations [e.g. MYANMAR, VIETNAM, PHILIPPINES, etc.] from the ME thru ASIA are desirous of dev INDIGENOUS NUCPROGRAMS which in LT will likely also include NUCWEAPONS + DELIVERY SYSTEMS. 2008-2012/13 [various Net] > IMO, while IRAN + MILITANTS NUCLEARIZE, etc = STRATEGIC EMPHASIS IS MORE POLITICS = PCorrectness than per se Militant Violence although the latter will still occur [ACTIVE DEFENSE/LIMITED OFFENSE]. NO US-IRAN WAR before Jan 2009 [espec 2008-2010] > AS long as the US = US-Allies stays put militarily in Iraq-Afghanis, or in the altern WITHDRAW-REDUX VV POTUS OBAMA?, IRAN + MILITANTS CAN STILL EFFEC NUCLEARIZE TO SALVAGE + IMPROVE THEIR JIHAD. IMO, THE NEW ISLAMIST "COUNTERSURGE" IN IRAQ, LEBANON, + AFRICA, etc. IS ABOUT KEEPING THE US-ALLIES MIL AT BAY + AS FAR AWAY LINEARLY/GEOGRAPHICALLY AMAP AFAP FROM IRAN + CENTRAL ASIA/ASIAN INTERIOR. At this point in time, THE US HASN'T WON TOTAL VICTORY, BUT NEITHER HAS OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM BEEN TOTALLY DEFEATED. Lastly, lest we fergit, PRE- AND POST-9-11 > FOR ANTI-US AGENDISTS, LEFTISTS, GLOBALISTS, etal. = THE ULTIMATE "BATTLEFIELD" IS FOR CONTROL OF THE HALLS AND MINDS/ACTIONS OF THE US GOVT.-NPE + CONGRESS, etc. IN WASHINGTON DC. Ditto as per Radical Islam. Iff one looks at the NET > its 1930 andor "PRE-MUNICH/MUNICH", or in the altern POST-NIXON/WATERGATE SOUTH VIETNAM, COMMIE forces had been left "IN PLACE" in SOUTH VIETNAM as per US-NVN TREATY OF PARIS, and NVN IS PREPPING NEW PLANS TO ATTACK SOUTH VIETNAM INCLUD FROM NVA-VC ENCLAVES WITHIN SVN ITSELF [SVN = Iraq]??? That leaves ISRAEL... DER SPEIGEL/OTHER > ISRAELI LEADERS MULL PLANS FOR MILITARY STRIKES AGZ IRAN, and similar News. Israel is repor seriously considering mil options to strike Iran's NucFacs/Nucprogs while pro-Israel Dubya is still POTUS [read - ISRAEL is UNCERTAIN about POTUS OBAMA, POTUS MCCAIN]. Lest we fergit, IRAN has already said ANY ISRAELI ATTACK AGZ IT WILL BE INTERPRETED AS A US STRIKE AGZ IRAN, AND CAN JUSTIFY AN IRANIAN MIL RESPONSE AGZ ISRAEL ANDOR US INTERESTS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, includ WITHIN CONUS-NORAM, BY ANY AND ALL MEANS NECESSARY, i.e. via PROXY WARFARE [Terror Opers = "AMERICAN HIROSHIMA(S)"]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-17 20:06 |
| #3 Or Feels like when we've defeated the Barbary pirates off of Libya. |
| Posted by: Muggsy Uneatle5679 2008-06-17 19:57 |
| #2 Lately, the Iraq war has looked more and more like another Vietnam — not for us, but for al-Qaeda. People keep trying to draw analogies between Vietnam and our efforts against AQ terrorists. I just don't see the analogy regardless of the point trying to be made. We won the battles in Vietnam. We had the enemy on the run. Vietnam fell two years after we left. and that resulted in the deaths of a couple of million innocents as the result of Pol Pot's Kher Rouge. I do agree with a couple of similarities: 1. the left has tried to establish an influence in this war as they did domestically during the Vietnam War, and 2. the press (MSM) has supported this position and been against this war from the beginning. Should we pull out of Iraq because of the left, we could expect to see Iran dominate the region. Sunni and Kurds would suffer. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-06-17 18:14 |
| #1 While it makes me a little queasy to compare al-Qaeda scum with US military personnel, I think the current state of al-Qaeda is much like that of the crew of the USS Indianapolis, after they were torpedoed. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-06-17 17:58 |