As the war in Iraq begins to drag on and the death toll surpasses 1,000, some people are beginning to question our long-term involvement and deployment in Iraq. Many anti-war activists point to the chaos in Fallujah and Sadr City, using it as an example of why the war in Iraq was wrong in the first place and why it is a mistake to continue our operations there. These individuals are near-sighted and do not see the big picture: Iraq is at the forefront of the war on terror.
Doubtlessly, some out there are rolling their eyes and are thinking that there is no connection between Iraq and terrorism, but they are wrong. Although the connections between Saddam and al Qaeda are blurred, recent homicidal bombings in Baghdad and Fallujah have the calling cards of al Qaeda, which has taken responsibility for many of them. In the past year and a half, Iraq has become a magnet for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in the region. Hundreds if not thousands of insurgents have entered Iraq from Syria, Lebanon and beyond, and the U.S. military and Iraqi police force are fighting them in the streets of Iraq. Why did bin Laden give Spain, Italy and Poland an ultimatum to get out of Iraq? It is because that is where the fight against terror has gone. Our greatest threat to life and liberty is now in the heart of Iraq, and we must make every effort to disarm and discourage them from committing attacks against our interests, which now include Iraq.
Thankfully the terrorists are no longer fighting in New York against innocent people. This time they are in Iraq up against our Marines, the way it should be. Fallujah and Baghdad have become the battleground in the war on terror, and here our technological superiority is negated by the close confines of urban warfare and innocent bystanders. U.S. Marines are dying in Fallujah because of the run and gun, cowardly homicidal bombing technique of al Qaeda and its followers.
The terrorists have no problem killing 22 innocent Iraqi children in a school bus or dozens of innocent market-goers in order to kill and wound a couple U.S. soldiers. This is because al Qaeda is fighting a media campaign and with some, it is working. Al Qaeda and their Ba’athist accompanists are trying to invoke the “Somalia response” from the American public. This refers to the death of 16 U.S. service members in Mogadishu, Somalia, and the American public’s quick cry for a complete withdrawal from the region, which happened in the following months. The key to the Somalia Response is the American public. The terrorists know that with every GI killed and wounded, America will lose some resolve, and the terrorists figure that sooner or later we will give in. Al Qaeda knows they do not have the resources to beat the U.S. military in a face-to-face battle (see Afghanistan), so they are going to attack a force far more powerful and fickle than any military: our public opinion. Public opinion is a dynamic creature, and it drives public policy. If the war becomes unpopular, if the American public loses its stomach, then the troops will be withdrawn and the U.S. will lose credibility in the region. Their technique is reliant upon a low number of high fatality bombings, which rip through the media’s headlines and create doubt in the mind of the average American.
The war on terror is being fought in Iraq against the same group that killed 3,000 in America Sept. 11, 2001. Although the connections between Iraq and al Qaeda were weak before the invasion last year, there is no doubt they have been responsible for multiple mass murders in recent months. The battle has been taken to them, and we must win and stay the course until we do so. Osama bin Laden knows the importance of Iraq, and so must we. More Americans will lose their lives in the war against terror, but their sacrifices must not be in vain. Many things are feared in the Middle East, and democracy is one of them. Totalitarian governments and extremists have much to lose in a system of government that favors the welfare of the many. We must stay the course in Iraq as long as it takes to create a strong self-governing democracy, and we cannot let Al Qaeda’s media techniques cause us to lose our resolution.
Robert Thelen III (
