I do agree that Bush is a walking recruitment poster for Al-Qaeda. I also agree that Reagan turned Al-Qaeda from a small cell of barely organized “International Muslims” fighting in Afganestan in the 1980s into one of the most well-trained, best equiped terrorist organizations in the world. Or ‘paramilitary’, as Reagan would say, the old charmer. But all evidence provided by the US government suggests that there are such a small number of Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq that they are practically indetectable, much less killable.
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According to the NIE (composed of the CIA ect), only 15% or less of terrorist attacks in Iraq are actually staged by Al-Qaeda. The majority of Iraqis, unlike, say, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, tend to adhere to more traditional sects of Islam, under the Sunni and Shi’a umbrella. They claim that the few Al-Qaeda operatives they have evidence for are smuggled into the country via Syria (oh, yes, economically crippled Iraq is the threat, not heavily militarized, terrorist-sheltering Syria). Futhermore, the Iraqi insurgency recently denounced Al-Qaeda.
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The US government reckons that Al-Qaeda has about 1000 operatives in Iraq, making up for less than one percent of the insurgency. On the other hand, Northern Africa has been buzzing with Al-Qaeda activity, as has Syria and the peninsula.
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Bush fought the war in Iraq because America wanted Muslim blood and it seemed like the easiest war: Daddy had left the country blockaded by other Muslim countries and in economic ruins. Iraq had no role in terrorism, and no history of the Islamic sects which we associate with international torrorism. If Bush had went in and fought Syria instead, it would have done worlds of good, but been a much more difficult war, and probably turned into a Vietnam, rather than a minor insurgency.
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Hell, if Bush had gone into Syria, the resistance against Israel would have collapsed like a house of cards, and we might have hope for Peace in the Middle East one day. But instead he fought in Iraq, which he reckoned would have looked better for TV cameras. A man with that kind of low ethical character and that kind of an opportunistic drive makes me fucking disgusted.
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Fighting Iraq to get Al-Qaeda – according to the US government/intelligence agencies itself – is something like bombing Madrid to fight the Russians.