These are the two best paragraphs I've read on al Qaeda in a long, long time. Via Kevin Drum, Judah Grunstein:
The Military Review article I wrote up in an earlier post offered more evidence of what's become the consensus explanation for the turning of the Sunni tribes: their disgust with al-Qaida Iraq's murderous tactics and their resentment at the AQI "foreigners" trying to impose an internationalist jihadi ideology on what was essentially a nationalist insurgency. But al-Qaida, as a globalized, multi-national suicide bombing outfit, has no other operational doctrine and no native land to call its own. Which means its experience in Iraq is almost certain to be reproduced everywhere it goes.
Think about that for a second. At a time when eighty percent of the Arab world views America unfavorably, and in a war that a majority of Americans (let alone Iraqis) disapprove of, al-Qaida failed to establish a sustainable bridgehead. That's not the mark of an organization that represents a strategic, existential threat to the United States.
As Judah goes on to explain, although al Qaeda poses a very real and serious threat to us, the hype far exceeds the underlying reality.If we were a bit more sober-minded in our response to them, we would be far more successful. After all, the Anbar Awakening happened despite the fact that the Sunnis in Iraq had only very recently been taking up arms against us. In the end, they decided they hated al Qaeda worse than they hated us, and that's really saying something.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
