Bush: "Stay the course in Iraq"; al-Qaeda: "Ditto!"

[PixelPusher]

In Bush's continuous effort to conflate the Iraq war with the war on terror, he says (paraphrasing) "Don't take my word for it, take al-Qaeda's word for it. They think Iraq is key to their war on the west..." and so on and so forth. Well, as long as we're taking their word for it...

The most important thing is that you continue in your jihad in Iraq, and that you be patient and forbearing, even in weakness, and even with fewer operations; even if each day had half of the number of current daily operations, that is not a problem, or even less than that. So, do not be hasty. The most important thing is that the jihad continues with steadfastness and firm rooting, and that it grows in terms of supporters, strength, clarity of justification, and visible proof each day. Indeed, prolonging the war is in our interest, with God’s permission.

That's an excerpt from a letter (PDF) found in Zarqawi's safe house after the bombing that killed him back in June. The letter is basically an admonishment from al-Qaeda higher ups telling him to stop being such a intolerant, bloodthirsty prick and think of the big picture. Zarqawi was alienating Sunnis by killing some of their leaders (which goes a long way to explaining the "overwhelmingly negative opinion of terror chief bin Laden" cited in the recent poll of Iraqis). Looks like killing him was less a blow to the al-Qaeda leadership than a convenient removal of an overzealous "loose canon" who didn't quite get with al-Qaeda's overall strategy for Iraq.

A couple of observations about the letter:
- Beneath all of the flowery, religious prose is a lot of practical, calculated, political advise not normally associated with "wild-eyed religious fanatics".
- It's nice to know the other side has their share of problems, too.

[Ocotillo]

You can lose a battle and still win the war. If we are to successfully combat militant Islamic extremism and the threats they bring to us, we have to fight smarter than we have.

Iraq was a critical misstep and has harmed our ability to counter and destroy the terrorists. The Iraq debacle has:

Emboldened the Iranians and given them greater strength then they had prior to the fall of Saddam.

Diverted important resources and manpower from Afghanistan where the Taliban and al Quada are recovering from the initial blow post-9/11.

Has cost the U.S. over 300 billion dollars and counting.

The American military performed extremely well in the original task they were asked to do which is overthrow Saddam but the civilian leadership in DoD failed to plan for the occupation. The mistakes that have been made led to a virtual breeding ground for anti-Western terrorists.

Abu Ghraib harmed us PR-wise in the Islamic world.

The positives that have come from Iraq is a tin pot dictator is no longer in power.

Anything else?

Republicans and the Bush administration in particular have demonstrated through repeated incompetence, that they cannot be trusted to lead us in the war against the terrorists that wish us harm. The only way to begin to undo this mess is to take back Congress to offer a counter balance to this out of control administration that we have for the next 2 and half years.