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AL QAEDA SCORES, ASSIST TO GEORGE W. BUSH. Matt Duss, channeling Mark Lynch:
We constantly hear conservatives condemning talk of withdrawal as "helping the enemy." We don't want to withdraw from Iraq and "hand bin Laden a propaganda victory," or some such. Leaving aside that it's almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, whenever that may occur, is not spun as a victory by Islamic extremists, as Lynch makes clear, the propaganda victory that Bush is handing al-Qaeda is not a matter of prediction. It is happening. By continuing to cling to and defend a failed policy by inflating al-Qaeda's power in Iraq, by treating al-Qaeda as a top-down organization with command and control capability, rather than a loosely affiliated ideological network, Bush is effectively waving al-Qaeda's flag for them. He got us into Iraq by misrepresenting Saddam Hussein's capabilities, and he's keeping us there by doing the same with al-Qaeda.Indeed. By rhetorically attaching the Iraqi insurgency so tightly with Al Qaeda, the administration manages to make Al Qaeda more legitimate in the eyes of those who believe that the Iraqi resistance is justifiable. Disaster ensues, but that's nothing new. --Robert Farley
