Imagine:
--Al Qaeda and other jihadis will continue to try and kill us at home. They'll try to hit us with big attacks and to sneak terrorists into America. Wow. Didn't see that one coming.
--The worldwide alliance to fight al Qaeda is working to reduce their ability to attack. But this cooperation might decrease. So we aren't distracted. And cooperation is good. Despite Iraq.
--Al Qaeda is gaining affiliates who usually attack local targets. But al Qaeda might convince some of them to direct resources at America instead of the local targets. The Iraqi al Qaeda is the only such group to indicate a willingness and interest to attack America. So al Qaeda is only expanding by accepting local jihadis beyond al Qaeda's control. And al Qaeda wants these guys to attack America even as al Qaeda prime cannot.
--Al Qaeda has regained some strength in Pakistan. This is the part the Left focuses on while ignoring every other part. It is rather obvious that al Qaeda is still alive in the Pakistani frontier areas. And if Pakistan isn't pressing them, their strength will rebound. Duh. But the high internaional cooperation and failure of al Qaeda to get anybody other than the guys from the next cave over to aim at us reduces the value of this increase in strength in the short run.
--Al Qaeda would like to use WMD on us. Once again, thank you intelligence agencies.
--Hizbollah might try to attack us at home if they think they need to defend their Iranian ally or if we go after them. I don't think this is a reason not to go after Hizbollah if we think we need to. Hizbollah has killed plenty of Americans in the region already (Beirut Marine barracks). But we can probably count on the Israelis to do anything we could possibly do. I'd rather read what the intel boys think about the possibility that Iran will order Hizbollah to attack us at home.
--Jihadi ideology is capable of inspiring unconnected Moslems to attack us here at home. But our Moslem population isn't anywhere near as vulnerable to succumbing to this hate as Europe's Moslems are. In addition, technology means that really determined and hateful jihadis don't necessarily need a state sponsor to really hurt us. All the more reason we have to treat this problem as one that requires us to undermine the appeal of jihad. Victory in the short run on battlefields such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and better-run and free Arab states in the long run are the only ways to kill the ideology of jihadi hate.
Actually, I'm being rather unfair in mocking the report's points. Yes, the NIE states some obvious conclusions. But they can hardly go unmentioned. The reaction of our Left to this report shows why this is necessary. The most amazing thing about this NIE release is that the Left is charging that the report bolsters the Left's inane claim that the fight in Iraq has distracted us from fighting al Qaeda.
The Left can chant NIE all they want, and they can pull all-nighters in Congress as if they have a clue, but the NIE does not in fact bolster their idiotic arguments about the war on terror. As I mentioned prior to the release, I expected the report to be decent but that the ability of war critics on the Left and in the press (yes, I know, I'm repeating myself) to honestly read the NIE and act on the report with any sense of realism would be virtually nil. I was absolutely correct on this score.
Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky-P'tang, Zzoo-Boing, gdgdbaaoizen.
