PrintSeptember 9, 2007
When credit is due, take it
On the Fox News Sunday program today, Chris Wallace interviewed Fran Townsend, the White House homeland security advisor. Toward the end of the interview he turned to Iraq. Both Wallace and Townsend used idea that by fighting in Iraq we were encouraging recruitment for al-Qaeda and thus strengthening it.
This dialogue spotlights one of the -- let's be frank -- colossal failures of the Bush Administration. As Col. David Kilcullen (Petraeus' counterinsurgency advisor) has revealed, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) tortured and killed the children of a prominent sheik. This obscenity destroyed the base of support for AQI in the Sunni community. The Sunni tribes have risen against AQI. Supported by our firepower, the Sunni tribes are in the process of destroying AQI, a Sunni organization.
This is a stupendous victory for us! So why are we not propagandizing it? The Sunni community in Iraq has rejected al-Qaeda in favor of freedom, exactly what we hoped to stimulate, albeit not with the violence that we have run into. AQI declared war on the umma and the umma has risen against it!
But here, on September 8, we have the White House homeland security advisor agreeing with the predicate that fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq is a setback for the United Stattes, and as a result, al-Qaeda is growing in strength and prestige.
Oh yeah? Tell that to AQI who are being run off the field of battle feet first, by their former supporters.
But the Bush Administration seems either too indifferent or too inept to promote this idea in the world media forum.
