In Today's Washington Post is a review of two books by Richard A Clarke. One book is "What we Owe Iraq" (War and the Ethics of Nation Building by Noah Freedman. And the other is "Banking on Baghdad" by Edwin Black. The review is worth reading in and of itself. It explains some of why the "war on Terrorism" so far has been so thoroughly botched. Clark talks about the "four layers" of Islamic Jihadism.
1. Al Qaeda itself -- which has receded to have a kind of "symbolic, spiritual and idealogical role" in the greater Jihadist movement. Has become an "inner circle" -- the seed of the movement.
2. The various Jihadist 'Al Qaeda related' groups -- many of which -- like that of Zarqawi are even more radical than Al Qaeda.
3. The Jihadist believers. Those who believe and more or less support the Jihadist cause -- and are legion in number.
4. The larger Moslem community.
The third and fourth groups should be the target of a rational "cold war" strategy, because they are too numerous to be physically overwhelmed. They provide the "physical and operational independence" -- transcending borders not just of Arab nations and Moslem nations, but also extending to the huge diasporah Moslem community in the West, for the first two groups.
Richard notes "American's also don't quite grasp how dangerous the Iraq misadventure is. One key to the overall U.S. response to the Jihadist threat is to understand how U.S. Actions affecting one of these four concentric circles affect the others. Supporting a democratically illegitimate government in Iraq or conducting counterinsurgency operations there that kill significant numbers of civilians may eliminate many Al Qaeda members -- but also generate sympathy for Al Qaeda and Jihadists throughout the Moslem world. That would draw members from the outer circles into the inner ones, giving terrorist organizations better logistical resources, fresh recruits and more money. The lines between the inner and outer circles are also the frontlines of the war of ideas, and the United States needs to pay close attention to how its actions affect the movement among them."
"The hard reality is that the U.S. presence in Iraq makes it extraordinarilly difficult for Washington to contribute successfully to the battle of ideas within the Islamic World."
This is a depressing thought.
Posted by cholte at November 21, 2004 10:51 AMIf we are to "fight terrorism" properly we need to listen to the Richard Clark's and other voices of reason. The Bush Administration is not off to a good start on that. Colin Powel is leaving, and the architects of the mistakes in Iraq; are being promoted.Credibility among arabs is said to be down to 1%. It's not too high with me either.
Posted by: chris_holte at December 9, 2004 03:45 PM