These are savage acts of violence but they have not brought
the terrorists any closer to achieving their strategic objectives. The
terrorists, both foreign and Iraqi, failed to stop the transfer of sovereignty.
They failed to break our coalition and force a mass withdrawal by our allies.
They failed to incite an Iraqi civil war. They failed to prevent free elections.
They failed to stop the formation of a democratic Iraqi government that
represents all of Iraq’s diverse population. And they failed to stop Iraqis from
signing up in large numbers with the police forces and the army to defend their
new democracy.
This was from the President’s speech to the Nation a few
weeks ago. He is telling us that the terrorists are flocking to Iraq in order to
fight our spread of freedom in that region. Well what if they weren’t? What if
the people coming into Iraq in fact weren’t terrorists at all, instead they came
to Iraq because of our presence there?
This might be the exact case. An investigation that was
done by Israel and Saudi Arabia, our two main allies in the region, show just
the opposite is occurring. The Saudi Government and an Israeli think tank went
through the background on the insurgents and realized an important fact – The
vase majority of those coming into Iraq to fight were not terrorists. Instead
they came to Iraq as freedom fighters and got radicalized once there.
This provides a serious blow to the President’s claim that
the terrorists have made Iraq the central front for the war on terrorism. In
fact it can now leave one to wonder; if we did not invade Iraq would the world
have fewer terrorists?
If the article in the
Boston Globe is any indication, then
the answer would be yes. George Bush has claimed that Iraq is now the central
front for the war on terrorism. The fact is, it is now a new war on terrorism.
We are not fighting the same people who attacked us on 9/11, but are now
fighting the people who don’t want us in the region. Ironically this is the same
ideology that turned Usama Bin Laden into the man he is today.
This leaves a serious question in the minds of Americans.
Is the administration purposely deceiving us, or are they blind to what is
actually occurring in Iraq? Either answer would lead to serious implications. If
they are deceiving us, then why? Are they trying to rally support for a war on
false pretenses. If they do not know the true reasoning behind the growing
insurgency then are we properly prepared to stay the course in Iraq? After all,
the key to winning the war is understanding your enemies.
This study does bring to surface one key point. We need to
work with the region as a whole and get them involved in the security of Iraq.
We can not go this alone any longer. Having key allies in the region is a
necessity to winning this ugly war. If we can achieve this goal then we can
safely leave the region. The problem is our administration is not trying to do
so. Instead they are classifying people that are fighting for what they feel is
freedom in the religion as terrorists.
If nothing else, this proves that our administration is in
a blinded sense of success in this war, as they will continue to see an increase
in insurgencies until the day we leave.