The world as an open field…for jihad

No matter what we think of the war in Iraq, we should all be seeking the truth about it, the stakes, and the best analysis of the way forward. Grim analysis, this.

As we approach next month’s report by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, the debate about Iraq will intensify. One key point of discussion will be a threshold question: How important is Iraq in the larger war against Islamic extremism? Is Iraq a central battleground in the fight against jihadists, or a distraction?

Wehner notes that Osama bin Laden himself calls this battle the Third World War. He and his commanders continue to make their motives and intentions clear.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the ideological leader of al Qaeda, has put these conflicts within a larger context. In his words, “The war with Israel is not about a treaty, a cease-fire agreement… national zeal, or disputed borders. It is rather a jihad for the sake of God until the religion of God is established. It is jihad for the liberation of Palestine, all Palestine, as well as every land that was a home for Islam, from Andalusia to Iraq. The whole world is an open field for us.”

And in a letter to the late leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Zawahiri wrote this:

We are dealing with an enemy that believes, in the words of bin Laden, “Death is better than living on this earth with the unbelievers among us.” The al-Qaeda Charter, for all its malevolence, has the virtue of clarity. It states, “there will be continuing enmity until everyone believes in Allah. We will not meet [the enemy] halfway and there will be no room for dialogue with them.” As if to reinforce the point, an al-Qaeda training manual says this:

“Islam does not coincide or make a truce with unbelief, but rather confronts it. The confrontation that Islam calls for with these godless and apostate regimes, does not know Socratic debates, Platonic ideals nor Aristotelian diplomacy. But it knows the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing, and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine-gun.” 

We best take them at their word.

Therefore….what? Wehner concludes:

An American defeat in Iraq would reinforce the impression among jihadists that the United States is the “weak horse,” that when bloodied we will flee, and that in the end, their will is simply stronger than ours. And if the critics have their way and deny General Petraeus the time he needs to help bring about a decent outcome in Iraq, the jihadists will be right.

Congress approved General Petraeus. For the good of all people engaged in this battle, they’d best keep partisan politics and campaign hot air out of it. The air is hot enough.