Getting It Right In Iraq

[Annie]

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/16925.html

Judith Apter Klinghoffer
WE ARE WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR IN IRAQ

That is the irrefutable message of Bernard's Haykel's op ed in today's NYT, yes, the same NYT which Ed Koch so correctly takes to task for denigrating the war on terror. Haykel writes:

The simple fact is that many jihadis believe the war in Iraq is not going well. Too many Muslims are being killed. Images of that slaughter, conveyed by satellite television and the Internet throughout the Muslim world, are eroding global support for the jihadi cause. There are strong indications from jihadi Web sites and online journals, confirmed by conversations I have had while doing research among Salafis, or scriptural literalists, that the suicide attacks are turning many Muslims against the jihadis altogether.

Do finish reading the descriptive part of this article along with Sunni Sheikhs criticizm of Zarqawi's Declaration of War Against the Shi'ites. It proves what my guts have been telling me all along. The vast majority of Muslims and even Islamists recoil from the daily pictures of Sunni mass murder of Shia in Iraq. Even Al Qaeda's number two understands as much and "in a letter made public last week, Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, cautioned Mr. Zarqawi against particularly gruesome executions and attacks on Iraqi civilians for fear of their negative impact on the global jihadi cause." It also encouraged Sunni leaders to cut a deal about the constitution. Why do you think Nazi sympathizers try to deny the Holocaust? Is it because they are proud of it?

Blowing up Westerners may seem like romantic justice to ideological radicals. Blowing up hapless fellow Muslims less so. In other words, the Islamists may have to give up on Iraq and permit an establishment of a democratic form of government there which would accelerate significantly the reform process already underway in the Greater Middle East.

Nor would it be easy for the Islamists to intensify their campaign in the West without causing major difficulties to their Diaspora which includes their own leadership. The home grown London bombing began to put an end to their cherished safe haven of Londonistan. The rest of the West is going to follow suit even more vigorously after the next bombing.

In other words, we are continuing to win ugly the war on terror and we are doing so in Iraq provided we do not listen to Haykel's plea and ease the pressure on the Jihadists in the West. Giving the enemy time to reassess and come up with new, improved strategies are not in out interest and, certainly, not in the interest of the innocents who will be blown up while Islamists do so. On the contrary, it is time to ratchet up the pressure and, finally, exploit success in the manner we failed to do immediately following the overthrow of Saddam.

Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 at 12:18 PM