al Qaeda or Islam?


al Quaeda, in the newly published The Future of Iraq and The Arabian Peninsula After The Fall of Baghdad by bin Laden associate Yussuf al-Ayyeri, says that their battle really is againt the American system:

‘IT is not the American war machine that should be of the utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of Islam, in fact its very survival, is American democracy.”

Amir Taheri reviews the book and its arguments in the Washington Post. Since I haven’t read the book I will posit that Taheri’s analysis and extracted quotes are representative of al Qaeda’s position. It certainly seems to match what has filtered through the bushie’s smokescreens.


So straight from the horses mouth they acknowledge that the US did a good thing getting rid of the Ba’aths in Iraq:

“The end of Ba’ath rule in Iraq is good for Islam and Muslims,” he writes. “Where the banner of Ba’ath has fallen, shall rise the banner of Islam.”
The author notes as “a paradox” the fact that all the various forms of unbelief that threatened Islam were defeated with the help of the Western powers, and more specifically the United States.

and then, seemingly straight from the neocon’s workbook, al-Ayyeri argues for ongoing disruption in Iraq:

He says that it is vital to prevent any normalization and stabilization in Iraq. Muslim militants should make sure that the United States does not succeed in holding elections in Iraq and creating a democratic government. “If democracy comes to Iraq, the next target [for democratization] would be the whole of the Muslim world,” Al-Ayyeri writes…..
“Do we want what happened in Turkey to happen to all Muslim countries?” he asks. “Do we want Muslims to refuse taking part in jihad and submit to secularism, which is a Zionist-Crusader concoction?”

This is just what the bushies want. Will it succeed in eliminating al Qaeda and similar organizations. Perhaps, but what the neocons have not made clear to us is the decades that this full conversion would take and the cost in lives and lost opportunities.
It’s clear to me that we need to be focused on taking out al Qaeda. That organization has earned its end.
We do not, though, need to be taking on all of Islam any more then we would need to take on the entire Catholic church if one splinter group of nuns took out the pentagon.
Does an indeterminate length occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan and whichever are the next in line accomplish the elimination of al qaeda? Not likely in yours or my lifetime but it certainly will feed the al Qaeda recruiting pipeline for years to come.
It will be extremely difficult to undo the damage done by the bushies but there is no honor in repeating the crusades.
The US can, though, reclaim the high road and become the world leader in setting an example of freedom, prosperity and cooperation on a global basis. bush and company probably can not accomplish this but this will do more then all the billions we might pour into the sinkhole Iraq has become to achieve global peace, properity and liberty.
Via Sean LaFreniere.