Iraq: Ground Zero For The War On Terror
By Monte Kuligowski (10/07/04)
Critics of the Iraq War are inconsistently saying (1) the war has nothing to do with the war on terror; (2) the war is a distraction from the war on terror; and (3) the war is causing terrorism to increase.
Of all three sentiments, one must agree with point number three. Yes, the terrorists are fighting hard against U.S., Iraqi and allied forces; and terrorism is abounding in Iraq. And as we will see below, the terrorists are actually facilitating the war on terror. The fact that Islamic terrorists are convening in Iraq to battle soldiers and kidnap civilians will, in time, prove the other two liberal talking points to be insincere, naĂŻve or perhaps even blind adherence to party doctrine.
The Associated Press recently reported that over 100 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq and 26 have been brutally executed. What’s even more noteworthy is that most of the kidnappers are also foreigners. The liberal press loves to refer to those holding and beheading civilians as “insurgents” and “militants.” But these murdering animals aren’t holdovers from Saddam’s Republican Guard. Most often they are foreign terrorists from the Arab world who have made the pilgrimage to Iraq. Part I of the Iraq War was the overthrowing of Saddam. Part II is nothing less than a Muslim Holy War.
The most infamous group kidnapping and beheading Westerners is the “Tawid and Jihad,” which is led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from Jordan. Another terrorist group with foreign members, the “Brigades of Mohammed bin Abdullah,” recently abducted 18 Iraqi National Guardsmen. And then there’s the “Muntada al-Wilaya,” the terrorist group from Iran; the “Ansar al-Islam,” with its connections to al-Qaida; and we must not forget that the ill-famed al-Zarqawi not only leads his own group, but is also associated with al-Qaida. The question becomes not whether terrorists are linked to Iraq, but rather, what major terror network is not presently active in Iraq? Osama bin Laden might not personally be in Iraq, but please introduce me to an educated liberal willing to assert that al-Qaida fighters are not there. We’re not witnessing a revolt of the Iraqi people; rather we are seeing a war between global Islamic terrorists and legitimate Iraqi military forces and their new Western allies. The terrorists aren’t in Iraq to defend Iraq – that war has already been lost – they are there in an effort to prevent Western democracy from taking root in the Middle East.
You see, Iraq is Ground Zero for the war on terror at this present moment.
And we must not forget that the war on terror is a long term commitment. A tape released last Friday containing the words of Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri (al-Qaida’s second-in-command) made that point very clear. In the recording the terrorist leader encouraged the “youth of Islam” to fight on against the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. “If we [the present terrorists] die or are detained, continue the path after us, and don’t betray God and his prophet.”
President Bush declared way back on May 1, 2003, when Saddam was toppled, that major combat was over in Iraq. Liberal pundits love to cite that declaration as proof the president was wrong and the war was generally a bad idea. John Kerry says we shouldn’t have gone into Iraq without “a plan to win the peace.”
With the war on terror, however, winning the peace is neither a simple nor easy proposition. In order to win the peace, you have to kill Islamic terrorists. In order to keep them out of our country, you have to kill them overseas. President Bush appears to be more of a military mastermind, than the bumbling idiot Sen. Kerry would like to frame him as. Liberals have to hate it when Bush ends up not only liberating the Iraqi people, but prosecuting the global war on terror right in Saddam’s backyard. And it’s a war that absolutely dwarfs the good that’s already been done in Afghanistan.
Things have taken quite an unfortunate turn for terrorists, in that the Iraq War has evolved into Jihad-Central-Station. With this being the case, the Islamic terrorists have their work cut out for them half way around the world, as opposed to here in the United States. How clever of Bush to bring the terrorists to Iraq where the global war on terror could be centralized. The terrorists have been so busy in Iraq, they haven’t had time to attack us on our home turf.
Yes, there is breaking news for the Kerry campaign: we are prevailing in the war on terror. In fact, Iraq is now the Ground Zero of that war.
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