An article today in the Times Online makes me want to change my position on the troop surge. In a newly released video Ayman al-Zawahiri is seen mocking the presidents plan to send more troops to Iraq. He likes the idea because he thinks that it is an opportunity to bring the entire evil army into Iraq so it can be destroyed.
“I ask him: why send only 20,000 of his soldiers to Iraq. I ask him: why send only 20,000 soldiers? Why don’t you send 50,000 or 100,000…Don’t you know the dogs of Iraq are impatient to devour the carcasses of your soldiers? On the contrary, you must send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujahedeen so that the whole world will be rid of your wickedness”
It is probably best described as al-Qaeda’s version of “bring it on”. If I was president it would make me want to bring it on. The more rational step would be to unleash the Shia’s on them. The entire military and diplomatic mission in Iraq for some time now has been to stop the Iraqi army (which is almost entirely a Shia institution) and the various militias (headlined my Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army) from turning al-Qaeda into a distant memory.
Why? Because US foreign policy is largely driven by humanitarian considerations (all Sunni’s would be targets) and the encroachment of Iranian power. Both are important but the latter should be stressed when creating foreign policy and devising geopolitical strategies.
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