Yup... The bottom line: We're fucked if we follow through. We're fucked if we don't. What a great situation this President's war-of-choice has put us in.
October 02, 2006 Bin Laden to Zarqawi: We're Not Doing So Well! I missed this when it came out last week, but CENTCOM has released a new document at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center. The document is a letter from a high-ranking al Qaeda officer named Atiyah, who passes on criticisms of Zarqawi that apparently originated with bin Laden, Zawahiri, or other top al Qaeda leaders. The document was found, as I understand it, in Zarqawi's "safe" house after he was terminated with extreme prejudice by an American bomb. You have to plow through a lot of palaver to get to the substance of the letter. What I think is most interesting is the picture that it paints of al Qaeda's prospects, especially in light of the recently-leaked fragments of the National Intelligence Estimate purportedly saying that the Iraq war has been a recruiting bonanza for al Qaeda, and that al Qaeda's numbers and support are ever-increasing. Al Qaeda itself seems to see its position quite differently. The letter says: "The path is long and difficult, and the enemy isnât easy, for he is great and numerous and he can take quite a bit of punishment as well. [Ed.: This is very different from how al Qaeda wrote about the U.S. after the flight from Somalia.] I command you, my brother, and I am your brother and I have nothing except these words that are between the two of us and God as the third party, that you send messengers from your end to Waziristan so that they meet with the brothers of the leadership, and the rational and experienced people and the shaykhs here, because you have a greater chance to send messengers (brothers that you choose) than your brothers have here. "[So al Qaeda's leadership is so pinned down that they can't even send messengers to Iraq.] "I am now on a visit to them and I am writing you this letter as I am with them, and they have some comments about some of your circumstances, may God guide you, with due confidence, affection, respect, and esteem. They wish that they had a way to talk to you and advise you, and to guide and instruct you; however, they too are occupied with vicious enemies here. [That would be us, I assume.] They are also weak, and we ask God that He strengthen them and mend their fractures. They have many of their own problems, but they are people of reason, experience, and sound, beneficial knowledge." [Note: al Qaeda's leadership is "weak."] "Know that we, like all the mujahidin, are still weak. We are in the stage of weakness and a state of paucity. We have not yet reached a level of stability. We have no alternative but to not squander any element of the foundations of strength, or any helper or supporter." But wait! Where are all those millions of jihadists who are supposedly flocking to al Qaeda's banner because of the Iraq war? They apparently are invisible to the organization's leadership, which sees al Qaeda as "weak," "in the stage of weakness" and in "a state of paucity." Paucity would mean not enough recruits and support. The main theme of this letter, as with prior communications between the home office and Zarqawi, is to express concern about the wanton killing of Muslims, especially Sunnis, by Zarqawi and his confederates in Iraq. The home office says that such mass murders are counterproductive: We warn against all acts that alienate, from killing to any sort of other treatment. Even insofar as the corrupt ones and traitors from among the Sunnis, we shouldnât kill them unless the people would understand and think that it was a good thing due to the obviousness of their corruption, their treason, and their evil. However, if we come and kill some people whom we know to be corrupt and treasonous, but who are respected and beloved by the people, then this leads to great trouble and it is an act against all of the fundamentals of politics and knows best and is wiser. The operative who wrote the letter gets one thing right. He tells Zarqawi that he shouldn't worry about carrying out too many attacks, but rather should focus on simply keeping the "insurgency" going: The most important thing is that you continue in your jihad in Iraq, and that you be patient and forbearing, even in weakness, and even with fewer operations; even if each day had half of the number of current daily operations, that is not a problem, or even less than that. So, do not be hasty. The most important thing is that the jihad continues with steadfastness and firm rooting, and that it grows in terms of supporters, strength, clarity of justification, and visible proof each day. Indeed, prolonging the war is in our interest, with Godâs permission. That's right: there is an election in November. One last thing. Unless I'm misreading the letter, it implies that al Qaeda's top leadership was, at the time of writing, in Waziristan, an area of western Pakistan that has long been suspected of harboring bin Laden and Zawahiri. John Hinderaker
Responding to a kidnapping by unleashing the most devestating WMD and cluster bombs, destroying civlilian infastructure, and causing outright terror to innocent people is simply Terrorism. The world can see that. In fact it is the feeble minded bible thumpers who support genocide while clutching their bibles over here that worry me. I dare you to openly critize bush - your career will be attacked like with Dixie chicks, bill maher etc, yep that's the kind of freedom you have