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Blogging Fallujah Michael Totten has yet another great article from Iraq, this time about Fallujah, once the scene of such bitter and intense fighting. The article is a condensed version of the material he has published on his web site and if you wanted to really get a feel for the place, this is the article to read
The whole article is interesting (as ever) but in my opinion the ‘money quote’ is to be found in the final paragraph:
That said, Fallujah’s worst days are likely behind it. “The al-Qaida leadership outside dumped huge amounts of money and people and arms into Anbar Province,” says Lieutenant Colonel Mike Silverman, who oversees an area just north of Ramadi. “They poured everything they had into this place. The battle against Americans in Anbar became their most important fight in the world. And they lost”.
Read the whole thing.
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Good article, but I’m less optimistic. Yes, Al-Qaida have lost, but it’s only their most important battle until the next one. It will take a lot of little victories like the one in Fallujah before Al-Qaida finally fade away.
Al-Qaida is more myth than reality, while terrorism and violence is a very real way of life in the ME, it won’t fade away, at most it will diminish to less gruesome levels. They have a knack of inventing fancy names, Fatah, Hamas, Popular Front, Muslim brotherhood, Hezbollah, Al-Qaida, etc. but it’s all the same old terrorism of which ME types are very fond.
Terrorism in Iraq is mostly fed by it’s neighbors, Syria and Iran, who also use, organize, incite and arm local groups. This is the second reason why terrorism won’t fade.
You need a big stick and a lot of time to reduce terrorism levels – not to vanquish it. (See also Algeria, for example). There won’t be any fast, clear-cut “victory” over terrorism in Iraq.