And, make no mistake, you’d get your wish to have al-Qaeda come out and fight. The problem is that you would galvanize tens of thousands of previously moderate Arabs as well, and from 150+ countries throughout the world.[/quote]
I have to agree with Allan here about Saudi Arabia – imagine what would happen if an Islamic Army (of any country) were to occupy the Vatican, for ‘security purposes’?
No matter what your flavour, Christians around the world would be up in arms about it. Over a billion people worldwide consider Mecca the centre of the world, you really don’t want to pi$$ off that many people without a really, really good reason.
I also think that getting out of Iraq – whether you’re of the ‘after my first term in 2013’ or the ‘troops out in 16 months’ persuasion – is going to make a big difference for the US re: Middle East relations.
And – maybe someone can explain this – I don’t understand why the US keeps on trying to fight a conventional war against what is a classic Guerilla movement (or asymmetric warfare, pick your poison) – in Al Quaida?.
Why isn’t the military taking a leaf out of both the UK and Israeli methods and copying MI6 and Mossad? They’re both internationally famous for infiltrating their enemies and bringing them down from within.
OK, it doesn’t look as heroic as a bunch of Marines taking a hill in a firestorm, but it would be a more appropriate method for finding and taking down Al Quaida than we’re doing at the moment.
Its not as if the US doesn’t have native speakers, the technology, or the manpower to be ‘softly, soflty, catchy monkey’, in the words of John Le Carre.
