Is There No Hope?
Ali Eteraz of Eteraz.org and a front-page contributor at Dean’s World has written a post at DW proclaiming the situation in Iraq to be without hope:
When — it is only a matter of time — we withdraw from Iraq, the Sunnis of the world are going to say “the mujahideen defeated the world’s greatest superpower.” The Shi’a will say that they drove out the Americans, but only the Shi’a will hear that.
My point: in the Sunni world, it will be Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda who will get the credit for our withdrawal.
That is not good.
He continues with a call to action: he proposes engaging in dialogue with the people of Syria, Iran, Turkey, the KSA, and others to counter the rising influence of violent radical Islamism.
Rather than bury my response in the comments or clutter up the front page there (or here) with my response, I’ve posted my reflections on Ali’s post at The Glittering Eye.
There’s a lively discussion going on at Dean’s World on Ali’s observations.
Is it really that certain al-Qaeda will get the credit for driving the US out? They’ll certainly claim credit, but I think a lot of analysts overestimate al-Qaeda’s size and influence on the insurgency. I would guess the vast majority of Iraqis opposed to the continued US presence in their country also are opposed to AQ terrorism.
You really should have though about this when you supported a President who clearly though his tax cuts were more important then providing the military with the resources they needed to win.
What makes you think that I supported Bush’s election, spencer? I didn’t. I also opposed the invasion of Iraq.