Iraqis Overwhelmingly Reject al-Qaeda

There is even more evidence coming out of Iraq to solidify the decision to go to war against Saddam. Those that argued for necessity of war hoped that an Iraq, run by its own people, would reject Islamic Fascism and set an example of moderation for other oppressed Muslims in the Middle East. This would be the first step in helping achieve the end goal of the inappropriately named "War on Terror" to end the threat of Islamic Fundamentalist attacks, big and small, against non-Fundamentalist Muslims throughout the world. I'll discuss the current events below, but it is necessary to take a step back and look at some of the arguments and attitudes that existed prior and during the war to provide proper context.

The possibility of links between Saddam and al-Qaeda continues to be a contentious issue in the argument over going to war. Those opposing invasion saw this argument as largely legal in nature--where is the evidence that such a link exists, and if we can't find one, can we justify going to war against Iraq (most argued no)? The other side of that argument found support among those who favored the pre-emption doctrine--the existence of solid evidence didn't matter, they saw the need to either eliminate any existing relationships between the two, or to confront and eliminate even the potential of any future relationship.

During the run-up, I was disturbed by the terrorist group Ansar Islam, who was operating in Northern Iraq, and also by the reported sightings of Abu Musab al Zarqawi in Bagdad. Links to the al-Qaeda leadership that authorized and planned September 11th was dubious at best, but with al-Qaeda on the run in Afghanistan and in desperate need of help, Saddam Hussein had the potential to be a natural ally.

Did Saddam, or any other Baathists, develop a relationship with al-Qaeda thus necessitating an attack by the United States and a willing coalition? Looked at in its legal context, history hasn't been able to answer this question yet. However, as I listed above, for those who saw Middle East transformation as the key to eliminating Islamic Fascism, Saddam Hussein was the natural target: he governed one of the largest and militarily potent Middle Eastern countries, had a history of brutally oppressing his own people (including a WMD attack on Kurds in Halabja--7,000 dead), attacked his neighbors (Iran & Kuwait), repeatedly violated the Gulf War cease fire by firing missiles at coalition planes over the no-fly zones, continually ran interference with UN inspectors over the search for WMDs and allowed terrorist and paramilitary groups (al-Qaeda linked or not) to operated within its borders.

Just to be clear, I hold this to be axiomatic--I support the best methods and efforts that will convince Muslims that bombing and killing non-fundamentalist Muslims is unacceptable. Many that opposed the war did so on the grounds that going to war against Saddam will cause moderate Muslims to side with Saddam, or al-Qaeda, to repel the more horrible infidel invaders (i.e. inflame the "Arab Street"). This argument fell apart in both Afghanistan and Iraq as our respective invasions failed to inflame opposition on a broad scale. Afghanis, from all tribes, rejoiced as we defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan, while in Iraq, even though the reception was much cooler, the resistance movement has been limited to a much stronger Baathist operated guerrilla movement in conjunction with al-Qaeda.

Well, current events being reported at Strategypage are throwing buckets of water over any flames kindling within the Arab Street:

Iraqi popular opinion has turned against terrorism in a big way. Apparently the key event was the revelation that Osama bin Laden had appointed Abu Musab al Zarqawi as "Emir" (leader) of al Qaeda efforts in Iraq and commanded him to go forth and kill big-time. But as suicide bombing attacks increasingly failed to reach American targets, and killed Iraqis instead, it appeared that a Saudi (bin Laden) was telling a Jordanian (Zarqawi) to kill Iraqis. This attitude never made headlines, but it slowly spread among Sunni Arab Iraqis over the last year. Sunni Arab areas where were most of the violence was, particularly after Shia Arab demagogue Moqtada Sadr stopped instigating violence (because he found that he had much less popular support than he believed). Once the Sunni Arabs turned against terrorism, the terrorists found themselves operating in an increasingly hostile environment.

A big story that the media missed was that American troops operating outside the fortified camps (like the Green Zone) were a lot closer to what was going on than your average reporter (who doesn't get out much because of the danger). The combat troops, and many of the non-combat troops, deal with the danger, and Iraqis, on a daily basis. The troops saw the change in attitude among Iraqis. They also saw, in neighborhood after neighborhood, the sharp decline in attacks on coalition and Iraqi forces. They knew the reason for this was the ongoing reconstruction work (mainly supervised by coalition troops) and terror attacks that killed mostly Iraqis. The foreign media appeared to be describing a place that sort of looked like Iraq, but wasn't. Because of the growing availability of email in Iraq, for Iraqis and foreign troops, more people around the world are able to get unfiltered (by journalists) reports from inside Iraq. This has left recipients of these emails wondering what's going on with the reporters. It's simple; fiction always outsells non-fiction.

Conclusion: the war that removed Saddam Hussein in Iraq not only ended a brutally oppressive and hostile regime, and replaced it with a government on its way to being a government of the people (they're still working on this one), but it has driven a wedge between the Islamic Fascists, of al-Qaeda’s ilk, and the more moderate Muslims in Iraq. This war has shown that al-Qaeda's bloodthirstiness doesn't distinguish between "Muslim Brother" and western infidel. It is with great sorrow that it has taken thousands of dead Iraqis for them to realize how dangerous al-Qaeda is, but we should be forgiving; it took 3,000 deaths on American soil for us to realize how dangerous these murderous nihilists were. Many good men and women have lost their lives as a result of these murders, but we are not only defeating this enemy, but building free nations in the process. Win-Win.