On Sunday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made the rounds of the political talk shows, making the link between the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden’s Al Quaeda. He said the Islamic fundamentalists who comprise Al Quaeda were outraged in the early 1990s by the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia is home to Islam’s most sacred shrines, which are allegedly desecrated by the presence of infidels. The Americans were using Saudi air bases to launch sorties over southern Iraq, so if Saddam hadn’t been running Iraq, then the Americans would not have had to bomb him and would not have gone to Saudi Arabia and desecrated the Muslim holy land. By Mr. Wolfowitz’s logic, the link between Saddam and Osama is the U.S. Air Force.
There may well be a Saudi connection to Al Quaeda, but this is not it. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on September 11th were Saudis. The section concerning Saudi Arabia in the recent report on the 9-11 attacks remains classified, including the links between the hijackers and Saudi government officials. Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee want the Saudi information declassified, the Saudis want the information declassified, but George W. Bush says no. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Three nations had definite links to Al Quaeda on September 11th – Afghanistan, which we invaded and installed a client government; Pakistan, where the Musharraf government quickly turned its back on the Taliban and demonstrated satisfactory acts of submission (although a large segment of the population remains anti-American and pro-bin Laden) and Saudi Arabia, where some of the 5,000 members of the royal family are thought to support Al Qaeda to some degree.
Iraq was never among the nations supporting Al Quaeda. That doesn’t mean Saddam is a nice guy, it just means he never saw eye to eye with Osama. The Bush administration is already being dragged down by its web of lies concerning Iraq, from the non-existent biological and chemical weapons to the non-existent nuclear program. I’m sure the White House figured sending Wolfowitz out with one more red herring couldn’t make things worse at this point.
Besides, the administration needed to do something, anything to get the press’s attention away from what is really happening in Iraq. In the week before Mr. Wolfowitz’s dog-and-pony show, an average of two American soldiers were killed in Iraq each day. It’s true our forces killed Uday and Qusay Hussein, but I’m not sure how instrumental they were to organizing Iraqi resistance.
In fact, while Mr. Wolfowitz was wrong about a past link between Iraq and Al Quaeda, there may be a link developing as a result of U.S. military action. Militant Islamic fundamentalists – like other fundamentalists – see the world is a battle between Us and Them. In the 1980s, the battle was in Afghanistan against Russia; in the 90s, it was in Chechnya, also against Russia. Now, the battle is in Iraq, against America. Saddam had no interest in allowing fundamentalist Jihadis cross his borders and potentially undermine his regime, but Saddam doesn’t control his borders anymore and catching or killing Saddam won’t stop the attacks.
Terrorists used to have to come to North America to kill Americans, but by invading Iraq, Mr. Wolfowitz and his Pentagon cronies have conveniently moved the target 6,000 miles closer to the terrorists.
What the U.S. needs right now is help from either NATO or the UN. Unfortunately, the leaders of NATO and the UN are busy wiping George Bush’s spit from their eyes. Worse, no nation wants to put their soldiers into the middle of the shooting gallery Paul Wolfowitz has so carefully constructed in downtown Baghdad.
We’re caught on the horns of a dilemma. We need troops from other nations to bring security to Iraq, but no nation will want to send troops to Iraq until it’s secure.
It’s what veterans of another war called a Catch-22.
Waist Deep in Big Muddy
On Sunday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made the rounds of the political talk shows, making the link between the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden’s Al Quaeda. He said the Islamic fundamentalists who comprise Al Quaeda were outraged in the early 1990s by the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia is home to Islam’s most sacred shrines, which are allegedly desecrated by the presence of infidels. The Americans were using Saudi air bases to launch sorties over southern Iraq, so if Saddam hadn’t been running Iraq, then the Americans would not have had to bomb him and would not have gone to Saudi Arabia and desecrated the Muslim holy land. By Mr. Wolfowitz’s logic, the link between Saddam and Osama is the U.S. Air Force.
There may well be a Saudi connection to Al Quaeda, but this is not it. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on September 11th were Saudis. The section concerning Saudi Arabia in the recent report on the 9-11 attacks remains classified, including the links between the hijackers and Saudi government officials. Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee want the Saudi information declassified, the Saudis want the information declassified, but George W. Bush says no. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Three nations had definite links to Al Quaeda on September 11th – Afghanistan, which we invaded and installed a client government; Pakistan, where the Musharraf government quickly turned its back on the Taliban and demonstrated satisfactory acts of submission (although a large segment of the population remains anti-American and pro-bin Laden) and Saudi Arabia, where some of the 5,000 members of the royal family are thought to support Al Qaeda to some degree.
Iraq was never among the nations supporting Al Quaeda. That doesn’t mean Saddam is a nice guy, it just means he never saw eye to eye with Osama. The Bush administration is already being dragged down by its web of lies concerning Iraq, from the non-existent biological and chemical weapons to the non-existent nuclear program. I’m sure the White House figured sending Wolfowitz out with one more red herring couldn’t make things worse at this point.
Besides, the administration needed to do something, anything to get the press’s attention away from what is really happening in Iraq. In the week before Mr. Wolfowitz’s dog-and-pony show, an average of two American soldiers were killed in Iraq each day. It’s true our forces killed Uday and Qusay Hussein, but I’m not sure how instrumental they were to organizing Iraqi resistance.
In fact, while Mr. Wolfowitz was wrong about a past link between Iraq and Al Quaeda, there may be a link developing as a result of U.S. military action. Militant Islamic fundamentalists – like other fundamentalists – see the world is a battle between Us and Them. In the 1980s, the battle was in Afghanistan against Russia; in the 90s, it was in Chechnya, also against Russia. Now, the battle is in Iraq, against America. Saddam had no interest in allowing fundamentalist Jihadis cross his borders and potentially undermine his regime, but Saddam doesn’t control his borders anymore and catching or killing Saddam won’t stop the attacks.
Terrorists used to have to come to North America to kill Americans, but by invading Iraq, Mr. Wolfowitz and his Pentagon cronies have conveniently moved the target 6,000 miles closer to the terrorists.
What the U.S. needs right now is help from either NATO or the UN. Unfortunately, the leaders of NATO and the UN are busy wiping George Bush’s spit from their eyes. Worse, no nation wants to put their soldiers into the middle of the shooting gallery Paul Wolfowitz has so carefully constructed in downtown Baghdad.
We’re caught on the horns of a dilemma. We need troops from other nations to bring security to Iraq, but no nation will want to send troops to Iraq until it’s secure.
It’s what veterans of another war called a Catch-22.