George Bush vs. al Qaeda in Iraq

The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting story about the declining fortunes of al Qaeda in Iraq:

Al Qaeda reveals signs of weakness

The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said Thursday that Al Qaeda is 'simply gone' from some areas.

Cairo - On Tuesday in Iraq's Anbar Province, where jihadi fighters once enjoyed sanctuary, Sunni Arabs turned out en masse to commemorate Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a leader suspected of having been killed for helping the US rout Al Qaeda from the province. He was hailed as a "martyr."

In Lebanon last month, the efforts of Al Qaeda-inspired guerrillas to take over a Palestinian refugee camp were crushed. And in his latest audiotape, Osama bin Laden adopted a rare contrite tone, admitting "mistakes" by some Al Qaeda militants in Iraq.

Across the Arab world, where Al Qaeda had sought to build influence and bases of operation on the back of widespread anger against the US over its war in Iraq and the broader war on terrorism, the movement is now showing signs that it is stalled, if not in retreat.

Experts say Al Qaeda's failures have largely come down to its brutal methods, which have turned off large numbers of Arabs. They say that Muslims from Iraq to Egypt may want their countries to adhere to strict Islamic law, but not at the price of suicide bombings.

Even Osama bin Laden recognizes the dramatic turn of events in Iraq:

Change of tone in Bin Laden's latest message

Osama bin Laden has resurfaced with a new message urging insurgent groups in Iraq to avoid divisions and unite to defeat the US-led coalition. The message, in an Arabic audio tape broadcast by al-Jazeera television last night, was addressed directly to "my brother fighters in Iraq". They were told: "Muslims are waiting for you to gather under one banner so that justice can be served."

The fugitive al-Qaida leader said, without elaborating, that some fighters had committed "mistakes", and called on the insurgents not to follow "their leaders and groups blindly.

"Everybody can make a mistake, but the best of them are those who admit their mistakes," he said, adding in a rare moment of self-criticism that he advises "himself, Muslims in general and brothers in al-Qaida everywhere" not to be extreme.

The latest recording came amid Iraqi government reports of a sharp drop in violence in Iraq, following a series of US-led offensives in Washington's "surge" strategy.

A sharp drop in violence due to the troop surge? That's the left wing Guardian talking, folks. I wonder how anti-war extremists in America react to stories like this? After all, to them, al Qaeda in Iraq is simply a myth (or, if not a myth, then an inconsequential force). If that's true, then what explains the dramatic drop in casualties over the last 2 months? Who did the Sunni tribes turn against? Why is Osama bin Laden upset?

I also wonder why otherwise excellent stories like these do not bolster their claims of al Qaeda's declining fortunes by presenting poll results from throughout the Muslim world. Almost everyone I know has been brainwashed by our well-meaning but hopelessly misguided mainstream media into believing that our invasion of Iraq has been a huge propaganda victory for al Qaeda. But that's dead wrong. The Muslim world has finally awakened to the reality of the terrorist organization they once cheered (back when they were killing Americans instead of slaughtering Muslims in Iraq), and it happened because of our invasion of Iraq. Here again is the latest Pew poll on how Muslims feel about Osama bin Laden and his penchant for intentionally slaughtering innocent civilians using suicide bombers:


They have also turned increasingly against al Qaeda's method of fighting their war against America, which consists of suicide bombings that target innocent civilians:


That's real news, and it's good for Bush (and that's precisely why you don't hear much about it).

The Christian Science Monitor article includes this additional spot-on analysis:

"Iraq was Al Qaeda's greatest achievement and its greatest failure," says Evan Kohlmann, an author and consultant on jihadi movements who closely tracks Al Qaeda and aligned propaganda that is spread on the Internet. "At one time they were riding high from what was happening in Iraq, people were talking about [similar] movements popping up in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and that time has come and gone.

"Al Qaeda has gone, in the minds of many Muslims, from being this kind of chivalrous organization run by Muslim knights seeking to defend the purity of the Muslim world and, instead, they've been revealed for what they are. They've done it to themselves."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, no one foresaw what would happen. Many believed that it would simply be a boon to al Qaeda as al Jazeera showed pictures of American bombs raining down on Iraqi civilians. No one predicted that al Qaeda would launch an offensive in Iraq by targeting Muslim civilians for death in an effort to provoke a civil war (which is exactly what happened). Instead, the thought was that al Qaeda, if they came to Iraq, would fight the Americans. But Zarqawi had a better plan.

When al Qaeda succeeded in pushing Iraq to the brink of civil war, few predicted that George Bush would respond by actually increasing the number of American troops in Iraq. And although some hoped for the best, few predicted that al Qaeda in Iraq would simply collapse in response. None of this was predictable, but that's what happened.

Al Qaeda has shattered its reputation in the Muslim world, but they were willing to take that risk because of the prize that was almost at hand, namely, the defeat of America in Iraq (you know, the one that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi attempted to ensure when the going got rough). As it turns out, al Qaeda destroyed their reputation, and then they lost in Iraq anyway. If they remain down and out, history seems likely to record the fact that George Bush presided over a strategic defeat of the enemy that attacked us on 9-11. This message won't be carried by the mainstream media. They'll focus on political benchmarks and related nonsense in an effort to portray Bush's adventure in Iraq as a failure (which, in their minds, is what it was before the U.S. invaded). But the truth is that al Qaeda declared war on America by inciting civil war in Iraq. Instead of pulling our troops and handing a glorious victory to al Qaeda (the Harry Reid solution), Bush responded with force and crushed that terrorist organization in Iraq. That's what happened, whether the mainstream media likes it or not (and I feel sure that they don't like it one bit). History seems likely to record what the mainstream media refuses to believe.