Is the battle for Iraq important to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda?

Question

POTUS G W said recently ".. Osama bin Laden. He's proclaimed that the "third world war is raging in Iraq." Osama bin Laden says, "The war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever." I say that there will be a big defeat in Iraq and it will be the defeat of al Qaeda. "

"Today I will consider the arguments of those who say that al Qaeda and al Qaeda in Iraq are separate entities. I will explain why they are both part of the same terrorist network — and why they are dangerous to our country. "


"A good place to start is with some basic facts: Al Qaeda in Iraq was founded by a Jordanian terrorist, not an Iraqi. His name was Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Before 9/11, he ran a terrorist camp in Afghanistan. He was not yet a member of al Qaida, but our intelligence community reports that he had longstanding relations with senior al Qaida leaders, that he had met with Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Zawahiri." (GW Bush 24 Jul 2007)

Comments?

That ObL stated that Iraq is critical seems verified. I disagree that it is a ploy primarily to help recruitment. Remember that a major objective is to have Iraqi Defense Forces protecting their own Republic with our multi-national forces as allies. The war against Muslim atrocities was never expected to be short-lived. Having well fortified modern military bases in the cradle of the Middle East would be a significant and real deterent against actual Muslim aggression, not unlike the real deterrent in other wars. Clearly this war is not one of diplomacy, and requires actionable measures to enforce law and attempt to keep peace.

Answer 1

Bin Laden is probably dead but his number two has called Iraq the central front in the war against the west. Maybe we should listen to him.

Answer 2

The wars in the Mideast are more about the shifting of power from Sunni Muslims to Shiite Muslims. Al Qaeda (which is all Sunnis) is blowing up way more Iraqi Shiites than US troops because they consider the 25 million Iraqi Shiites a much bigger threat to them than the Americans. So yes, Iraq is extremely important to Al Qaeda but not so much as a terror base than as a Sunni stronghold against Shiite Iran. If the Iraqi Shiites win the civil war then Iraq will no longer be the Sunni stronghold that it was under Saddam & that would be very bad for all Sunni Muslims in the Mideast including Al Qaeda.

Answer 3

Iraq as a country is not important to al Qaida, defeating America is what is important. Killing Americans is what is important, either here or there, makes them no difference. We just made it easier for them to kill us by going to Iraq in the first place! If we assumed the same attitude that they have, which is that they don't care how many Iraqi innocent people are killed, the action would be a done deal for our side. The Iraqi government doesn't care how many of our people die there, they didn't ask us to come & start trying to give them Domocracy, they didn't want it, still don't! Why don't we all just go home?

Answer 4

George Bush has absolutely NO credibility at this point. He only tries to connect Al Qaeda and the War on Terror to the war in Iraq because he wants to "stay the course."

The only reason Al Qaeda WOULD care about what the US does in Iraq is to note the amount of money we're wasting. We waste our resources in Iraq instead of focusing on Al Qaeda. They're probably laughing hysterically about how incredibly stupid that is.

Answer 5

never does the ignorance of American military stun me.you want an opinion? fine.until your leaders in the west realize that your policies and not osama is the biggest and best recruitment tool the militants ever,ever had,than you will continue to see losses politically and on the human side.if they killed osama,zawahiri and the rest of their leaders today do you think the problem goes away?they have been duped.the issue is not osama.its Islam and the perceived threat your nation and the west poses to them.

Answer 6

Er, no.

Al Qaida has used Iraq as a makeshift guerrilla training ground, maybe.

Some people don't get it; you can't create your own reality and then task the rest of the world to go by that.

Answer 7

bin Laden is not stupid.

If he says Iraq is important, then the US will continue to fight in Iraq. Which just feeds his recruitment, and prevents the US from going after him (since he's not in Iraq).

We're doing exactly what he wants -- wasting time and lives in Iraq.

Answer 8

not really except for one thing only Iraq is the best recruitment tool he could have ever prayed to allah for