O1 November 2007
Iraqi Islamic Party: “Al Qaeda is Defeated”
“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.
Colonel Ricky Gibbs, the American brigade commander with responsibility for the Rashid District in south Baghdad today told me, “So goes South Baghdad goes Baghdad.” General Petraeus had told me similar things about the importance of South Baghdad. In fact, Rashid is quickly developing into what might be one of the final serious battlegrounds of the war.
During the meeting, another member of the Iraqi Islamic Party said that al Qaeda has changed its strategy now that fomenting civil war between Sunni and Shia has backfired. Al Qaeda has shifted targets, now trying to generate friction between tribes. This time, however, the tribes are onto the game early, and they are not playing.
Maybe because Al Queda is a minor part of our problem in Iraq? And didn't even exist in Iraq before we took out Saddam Hussein?
Could also be that we're used to someone claiming victory every time the other side suffers the slightest setback...
Al Queda in Iraq has been blowing up civilians and Iraqi policemen pretty regularly, but they're only responsible for a small percentage of the attacks on Americans. And in the long run, they won't be power brokers in Iraq, the way the Sunni sheiks and Shi'ite clerics will be.
Its apparent that some people choose to believe the garbage that the liberal media pukes out. Last I checked Al Qaeda was a terrorist organization and were were at war with them.
Well, that orginization was not present in Iraq until we got there...So it begs the question, why are we in Iraq ? We are there for the oil under the guise of a war on terror.
Well, that orginization was not present in Iraq until we got there...So it begs the question, why are we in Iraq ? We are there for the oil under the guise of a war on terror.
Liberal I am not...nor am I an idiot.
Wow, that explains all of the surplus oil we now have.
Wow, that explains all of the surplus oil we now have.
Well, he said that was the idea, but he didn't say it worked, toolman.
Seriously, I have no doubt oil figured into the equation somewhere, since it's the lifeblood of our economy. Whatever they had in mind, I'm sure they didn't figure on the Iraqi production staying so low after our invasion...
It's not about having the oil now...it's a long term plan. If you think this deal will end without some nice dividends in oil from Iraq, your'e crazy.
I'm not saying securing future oil while overthrowing a tyrant is wrong per se, But don't assume we are so stupiid as to believe that it is about terror, or WMD etc. It was all based on "faulty intelligence" , ie opportunity under smokescreen of terror.
As for the real war on terror...at the afghani/Pakistan border, where all intelligence points to Osama staying in these border mountains; why, For all the money we spent in Iraq, could we have not circled this small area on the map several times over and choked this guy out by now ?
This man, who killed thousands of Americans and vows much more, is laughing and eating a goat tonight; toasting to his victories over the silly infidels. And we are in Iraq...DOING WHAT ?
Location: Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C.
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The reason we are embroiled in the Middle East is both complex and simple. The United States is an oil consuming nation. We do not produce enough oil internally to support ourselves, so we must get it from other nations. Because of the Cold War we couldn't get oil from the Soviets so we turned to the Middle East. Business is business so the Arabs sold us oil and continue to do so. However the U.S.'s support of Israel makes the U.S. very unpopular in the Middle East, especially since we supply the Israeli's with military hardware and we use our political clout for the benefit of Israel. The Arab world views us as being interlopers in affairs that are none of our business and of blindly supporting Israel and ignoring the rights and plight of the Arabs. There is a very strong pro Israel lobby here in the U.S. that uses its influence to keep the U.S. government policy pro Israel and therefore anti Arab. Because there was virtually no effective Arab political lobby in the country before September 11, 2001, the Arab point of view has been ignored or down played for the most part. The Arab community has since September 11. 2001 started a grass roots effort to educate the U.S., but they must be careful not to push to hard least they be labeled as fundimentalist and marginalized.
The peoples of the Arab world both love and hate western society. We have money, power. glamour, decadence and open societies. The average Arab has none of that. A few wealthy Arabs have access to it but the majority don't. Islam tells them that they are the chosen people. So they can't understand why the west does so well. They vilify us to help themselves understand why they have little and we seem to have everything. Arab political leaders have been lying to their own people and misleading the West for so long they have little creditability outside their own governments. Throw in that their are two different groups in Islam and that each dislikes or even hates the other and you have unrest in the Arab world.
Meanwhile although we have been invited by the host governments to have troops and bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and other Muslim countries many Arabs, not just the fundamentalists view the U.S. as occupiers. The U.S. is especially condemed in the Arab world for having troops in Saudi Arabia. Two of Islams most holy shrines are there and since all non muslims are viewed as infidels (think pond scum) many consider it a great insult to all Islam to have infidel troops in the country. However the Saudi government invited us in originally to protect their oil fields from Saddam Hussein after he invaded Kuwait, and then threatened to keep on going after the Saudi's condemed the invasion. The U.S. has to have oil therefore Saudi Arab is of vital strategic interest (meaning WE WILL FIGHT to keep the status quo). Therefore we had the first Gulf War. As a sign of how important the region is to the U.S. we helped design, and build King Khalid Military City (KKMC) out in the middle of nowhere in the Saudi desert, several years before the war started. It is a huge military Airbase with runways long enough to handle about any aircraft the U.S. has. It was originally built in case the Soviet Union made any overt offensive moves into the Middle East.
I won't to get into the reasons for the invasion of Iraq. Saddam was no longer a threat to the Saudi oil fields whether the threat or reality of WMD is true and who knew what when and who did what to whom, I'll leave to others to discuss. Al Quieda made the decision to stand and fight in Iraq. Their high handed tactics and disregard for fellow muslims have dried up most support for them in much of the Arab world. Even the Saudi's have finally started silencing the imams in the religious schools in that country calling for war againist the west.
So we now guard the oil fields of the Middle East at the invitations of the host goverments but without the support of most of the local population. The bulk of our problems now come from the lawless border lands of Pakistan and from Iran. If Benazir Bhutto gets elected to the Presidency of Pakistan she has stated she will will allow U.S. troops in enter those areas to hunt Al Quieda and the Taliban. For those not fimiliar with the area the British called it the Nortwest Frontier when they controlled India (and Pakistan). For two hundred years the British were never able to tame the area and it remained a lawless tribal area that the British seldom entered unless in force. The current Pakistani government controls this area as part of Pakistan in name only. Whether we go in in small numbers or in massive force the area will not be easy to operate in. The local tribesman hate anybody who is not a local, and they will fight.
Iran is a whole different story, they are state sponsors of terrorism, they have openly supported and funded Hezbollah for decades. They sent Iranian personnel to Lebanon to fight border skemishes againist the Israeli's. They are the most vocal country calling for the destruction of Israel. Their current drive to go nuclear has two aims, first they want to be a regional and if possible international super power (think ICBM's). They want to be seen in the muslim world as the savior and protectors of the region. Iran and Saudi Arabia have been playing power politics with each other for decades to see who controlled the region. On the other hand they would very much like to destroy Israel if they thought they could get away with it. The U.S. shouldn't and the Israeli's won't allow the Iranians to go nuclear. If they do go nuclear the Israeli's will attack, with or without U.S. aid (covert or otherwise).
So it's all about oil, international power politics, political creditability, religion, religious fanaticism, the haves and the have nots. We, the U.S. have to fight overseas so we don't have to fight on U.S. soil. We can't give the people who want to destroy us the chance to regroup and fight us here. So simple yet so complex.
I'm sure I've left something out, I may have to update it.
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Those who forget History are condemed to repeat it.
Very interesting,I am impressed.
Just yesterday I heard on Cable TV that the violence in Iraq has been reduced by 2/3 and the death count of 29 Americans was the lowest in three years.
We seem to be still having problems with the government,but this seems to me to be over all good news!
Well, I still think it was neither necessary nor smart to go into Iraq, and leave Afghanistan and Pakistan simmering on the back burner; things are going to H*** in a hand basket in those two countries, and Osama is still running loose. But that doesn't mean I want things to go down the toilet in Iraq now that we're there.
I had some serious doubts about whether Bush's "surge" would result in anything but temporary improvement in the situation, and I'm still skeptical. But you know what? I could handle being wrong; it wouldn't be the first time. if it works, I'll give him credit for standing up against the flow and being right for once.
Of course, if it doesn't I'll see if I can round up a hose to help wash him downstream...
Dallas I'm very impressed with what you said and I agree 100 % with it.
What ever happens in the Middle East today.
( Some will believe this and some want.)
It's all Biblical.
Though what Dallas posted is the way or the cover "man" see's it...A.H
Last edited by ArkansasHunter; 11-02-2007 at 11:49 AM.
we need to get outr butts outta there and save taxpayer dollars and foremost work on our economy since the war has made the american people suffer because of it
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What Would Jesus Do ????? Just Ask Him.
Location: Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C.
Posts: 3,788
Out of where? Iraq? Afghanistan? Our bases in other middle east countries? That is called appeasement and will allow the fundamenatlists to consolidate their hold on the muslim world and start attacking us here at home and in Europe again. So you feel the American people have be inconvenienced, suffered a little? Would you rather they be dead, forced converts to Islam or living in fear because we ran away from the fundamentalists? Western Europe tried appeasement with Hitler and all it did was embolden him to continue his conquests. These fundamentalists are little more than a bigger version of the school yard bully. If you don't stand up to them they will continue to take and take. I would rather we fight them over there and not over here.
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Those who forget History are condemed to repeat it.
