Coming from Reuters this is fascinating:
Even as al Qaeda tries to rebuild operations in Pakistan, experts including current and former intelligence officials believe the group would have a hard time staging another September 11 because of U.S. success at killing or capturing senior members whose skills and experience have not been replaced.
Well. So a superpower can actually fight in Iraq and take apart al Qaeda at the same time. I guess we aren't distracted by killing jihadis in Iraq and promoting democracy there.
Yet opponents of the war in Iraq can always find a silver lining to undermine any idea that we win the Long War:
Some experts warn that the successes of Bush's war on terrorism have been undercut by huge security costs, strains on the U.S. military from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and resentment of the United States abroad.
"Look at al Qaeda's plans," said Michael Scheuer, who once led the CIA team devoted to finding al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "They're very simply defined in two phrases: spread out America's forces and bleed the United States to bankruptcy. I'd argue America has been under attack successfully every day since 9/11 from that perspective.
"If you're looking at it from the cave, or wherever al Qaeda is hiding at the moment, you have to be pretty happy with the way the world is moving," he said.
I almost choked when I read the above. Is this guy serious? This really does explain some of the problems in the CIA, now doesn't it? With talent like Scheuer, we didn't grab Osama already? Mind boggling, isn't it?
Our defense burden is less of a percentage of our GDP now while engaged in war than it was during the Cold War peace years and somehow this is a bin Laden success at bleeding us? Al Qaeda got bounced from their sanctuary and yet from their caves in Pakistan they should sense victory because we have enough wealth to pay for our defense with less effort than in 1988?
And it is a success that some jihadi might theoretically survive the killing fields of Iraq and take away some knowledge after surviving against our forces? When prior to 9/11 the enemy trained thousands in their Afghanistan sanctuary? If Iraq truly has trained legions of terrorists to be more effective, why is al Qaeda's capacity to harm us reduced? How could being a cave dweller for more than five years with nothing to show for their efforts make them pretty happy?
Our Left is so eager to surrender and lose to the jihadis that they can point to any development as a defeat for us and a victory for the enemy. Reality based, indeed.
