A Look At Iraq

h/t to Glenn Reynolds for linking to a BBC report on the Iraqi PM's Unity Proposal. In my opinion, reading between the lines confirms that going into Iraq was the right decision.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says there are concerns that Mr Maliki's plan will not work as it does not seek reconciliation with those at the heart of the insurgency - the radical Islamists, many of them foreigners, who want Iraq to be the centre of a new Islamic empire.

It's silly to think said foreigners came upon that reasoning because the US invaded. Iran and Iraq have always sat at the heart of what anyone would term a prospective new caliphate. With the hot war between Iran and Iraq cooled down, the extremists in power in Iran, and an Iraq that continued to suffer under world sanctions - Iraq would have presented a ripe environment for fostering extremism and a movement, assuming it succeeded, which would ultimately have led to Iraq being the next hard-line Islamic state.

True, the battle with radical Islam is a global conflict. But it's fair to conclude that we forced them to re-direct a great deal of time, thought, energy, money and any other resources to an Iraq confrontation I doubt they ever wanted. As to the notion that we created al-Qaeda in Iraq - not only do reports disprove that - if all al-Qaeda wanted was one base country - they would have poured everything into Afghanistan while the US was distracted in Iraq. They didn't do that.

We've drawn al-Qaeda into a military battle it didn't want - and while Maliki's limited proposal of amnesty might seem unpalatable to some, it would serve to further isolate al-Qaeda, which I suspect is the real point. To repeat the quote above:

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says there are concerns that Mr Maliki's plan will not work as it does not seek reconciliation with those at the heart of the insurgency - the radical Islamists, many of them foreigners, who want Iraq to be the centre of a new Islamic empire.

That's precisely what we want to do - drive a wedge - not include them in some whole. If isolated, the actual al-Qaeda-linked facets, or real terrorists in Iraq can be more easily defeated, while the US backs off and Iraq attempts to go forward by bringing more and more of its internal factions together.

Comments

[Terry Gain]

"it does not seek reconciliation with those at the heart of the insurgency - the radical Islamists, many of them foreigners"

Dan,

Wow. A BBC'er acknowledging that the heart of the insurgency is composed of radical Islamists and all this time we thought it was nationalistic Iraqis defending their country from an illegal occupation. You ought to keep the said quote at the top of the page until the war is over.