Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/19/2003 11:12:00 PM (Archive Link)
Not surprisingly, Iraq has become a hotbed of activity for Al Qaeda terrorists. They’re flowing into the country from other places in the region because, well, that’s where the Americans are. Most people will see this as a very bad thing because it may mean more American military casualties and in this respect they are right. However, it’s also very advantageous for us. Whereas these terrorists were previously spread all over the Middle East (and possibly beyond) they are now predominately located in one place. Instead of us having to go to a number of different countries, which would not have been practical for a number of reasons, to root out the slime, they have conveniently come to us in a place where we have the best resources available for eliminating them. And despite recent appearances, they do not have the upper hand.

Though in the last several days the terrorists have perpetrated a number of attacks on waterlines, oil pipelines, and bombing attacks on embassies and the UN headquarters in Iraq, this will eventually work against them. These militants are able to stay and thrive in Iraq only under the good graces of its inhabitants. The problem with committing terrorist attacks against American targets abroad is that they always wind up killing far more natives than Americans and they do more damage to the native infrastructure, economy, psyche, etc. In the case of Iraq, they’re hurting the very folks on whom they depend. Before long, these very same folks are going to get fed up with the jihadists disrupting their lives and stalling improvements. It is difficult to blame American occupiers for a burst waterline when you were the one who blew the dang thing up. So the good, hard-working Iraqis will start turning on the terrorists in their midst either directly by doing some undercover snuffing or indirectly by ratting them out to American forces. Al Qaeda is making a grave error by sabotaging Iraq itself.

So it is really rather ironic that these terrorists have come to Iraq in order to hunt Americans when they will very quickly become the hunted. It is also ironic that in seeking to further their almighty jihad against America, they will in effect weaken it by coming to the best place for us to combat them. It’s quite likely that American planners and policy-makers realized this sort of thing would happen and are now maneuvering to take advantage of the situation. Let’s hope they do.