By Patricia L. Mosure and Stephen G. Patten
President Barack Obama, as candidate for president and then commander-in-chief, has made it clear where he stands: downplay Iraq and hang tough in Afghanistan.
If the goal is to win the war on terror, however, the President may wish to rethink his priorities. The more important battlefield is Iraq, not Afghanistan.
Afghanistan:
We went into Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to kill or capture those responsible – al-Qaeda and its leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri – and take out the Taliban, the rulers of Afghanistan who had provided safe haven for bin Laden to plot 9/11.
We pushed the Taliban out but missed bin Laden. The Afghan government now in Kabul is chaotic and, everyone says, corrupt. While al Qaeda clearly has been weakened and bin Laden finally brought to justice, the Taliban still under leader Mullah Omar continue to fight to regain the power they once enjoyed.
Listen to Dr. Michael Scheuer, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency Osama bin Laden unit, in his book, “Marching Toward Hell, America and Islam After Iraq:”
“The U.S. mission in Afghanistan was to kill Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and as many of their lieutenants, foot soldiers, and Mullah Omar’s Taliban as possible. Our mission was strictly military in nature, accomplishable given the immense power of the U.S. military, and needing to be done quickly and in a way that would leave behind enough smoldering physical wreckage and high enough piles of corpses to (a) make future Afghan regimes think twice about hosting America’s enemies and (b) leave the clear idea in the minds of all Muslims that they can think and say what they will of the United States, but the cost of actually killing or helping to kill Americans is horrendous.”
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger of Kiel, Wisconsin vowed after 9/11 to take on Osama bin Laden herself. When her mother told her she couldn’t, she replied, “Watch me.”
Staff Sergeant Krueger, 29 years of age, died in the Fort Hood massacre,
5 November 2009.
The President, Defense Secretary Hagel, and our generals and admirals can take a page from the grit of Sergeant Krueger and the above mission statement of
Dr. Scheuer. Osama bin Laden is dead. It is time for the U.S. to do what it needs to do in Afghanistan and then get out, preferably sooner than the end of 2014 that the U.S. has set for a pullout from the country. And make it clear we will be back should any future Afghan government decide to play host to fanatics plotting to kill Americans.
Iraq:
We went into Iraq in March 2003 to: 1) Remove Saddam Hussein from power to prevent him from using his weapons of mass destruction; 2) Strike a blow against worldwide terrorism; 3) Establish a democracy in a strategic area of the Middle East that will serve as an example for others to follow.
The results? Saddam Hussein will not murder anyone any more, nor will his two sons, all of whom are dead now.
No weapons of mass destruction were found, but he had used them before and could have gotten them again. The Iran/Iraq War, 1980-1988: thousands died on gruesome battlefields sprayed with poison gas from Saddam’s arsenal.
The Kurdish village of Halabja in northeast Iraq, 16 March 1998: an estimated 4,000. people died as Saddam’s henchmen poured poison gas over their homes.
As for the blow against worldwide terrorism, the invasion of Iraq was an invasion of the Middle East, a response to the attacks of 9/11 upon us.
One measure of the impact of this strategy comes from George Friedman of the private intelligence company, Stratfor, who said this in his book, “America’s Secret War:” “The United States has reshaped the Islamic world to such an extent that Islamic nation-states are now using their intelligence services to attack and undermine al-Qaeda. Over the long term this will be a decisive element in the war.”
The flatten-Saddam-Hussein attention-getter was aimed at the Arab world in general and Saudi Arabia in particular. Why? Wahhabism.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab was an 18th century Muslim cleric extremist who allied with the Saud family that subsequently forged the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 and proclaimed Wahhabism its kind of Islam, considered by many to be a violently radical form of the religion.
The Saudis proselytize around the world, funding madrasas (schools), Islamic organizations, mosques, and individuals, all with the purpose of propagating Wahhabism.
How successful have they been? Referring to the Wahhabi culture in which Osama bin Laden grew up, Professor Walid Phares in his book, “Future Jihad,” says, “Osama bin Laden did not create al-Qaeda. It created him.”
Consider the Taliban. Many of them attended Saudi-funded madrasas in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
And, of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks, two were from United Arab Emirates, one from Lebanon, one from Egypt. The other 15? Saudis.
The message to Saudi Arabia from the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq: We are not going to tolerate another 9/11 perpetrated by Wahhabi terrorists. There is a limit to our patience as you spread a virulent version of Islam around the world.
On establishing a democracy in Iraq, the violence that still plagues Iraq and the political stumbles, amply demonstrated by the Iraqis’ inability to form a government for months following the March 2010 elections, show there are obstacles to overcome. It is in America’s interest to help Iraq. Our troops are gone, but our influence can still be pivotal through the substantial U.S. diplomatic presence that remains and the economic and trade relationship that we can continue to develop.
Others have said it but it bears repeating: Change Afghanistan and you change Afghanistan. Change Iraq and you change the Middle East.