Prepare to educate yourself
For all you nutjobs that think AQ all the time:
“Nobody knows how many different Islamist extremist groups make up the insurgency” in Iraq, said Anthony H. Cordesman of the bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Even when you talk about Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the idea of somehow it is the center of the insurgency is almost absurd.”
Nice link, Donviti. I read this in Sunday’s NYT as well.
Michael Yon:
“The focus on al Qaeda makes sense here, where local officials have gone on record acknowledging that most of the perhaps one thousand al Qaeda fighters in Baqubah were young men and boys who called the city home. This may clash with the perception in US and other media that only a small percentage of the enemy in Iraq is al Qaeda, which in turn leads to false conclusions that the massive offensive campaign underway across Iraq is a lot of shock and awe aimed at a straw enemy. But as more Sunni tribal leaders renounce former ties with al Qaeda, it’s becoming clearer just how heavily AQ relied on local talent, and how disruptive they have been here in fomenting the civil war.”
http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/al-qaeda-on-the-run-feasting-on-the-moveable-beast.htm
AQ in Iraq is much different than the ones that bombed us on 9/11
They’ve adapted, and are no longer as hierarchical as they were previously. That doesn’t make them any less our enemies or less of a threat.
No one has said that AQ is not our enemy.
No one has said that AQ is not a threat.
We DO say (like the very credible Mr. Cordesman) that there are more sets of threats in Iraq than AQ. Not the least of which are the Shia militias. No one can make a real link between AQ and the Shia and if they did, that might be the signal for Armageddon.
But the new drumbeat on AQ while they are a small number (but a certainly deadly number) is of a part of the new drumbeat going on about the possibility of attacks here by AQ. This is more about ginning up fear more than anything else. If BushCo had spent half as much time actually planning for some success in Iraq that they do in trying to scare the shit out of their base, we might actually be close to done with this business.
Well obviously the Shi’ia militias are a huge part of the problem too. Michael Yon was referring to Anbar province, which was formerly considered a ‘lost cause’ and left to al Qaeda and others allied with them. Things in Anbar are beginning to change.
Who’s afraid of al Qaeda? I’m not. I know they’re capable of attacking us, and I recognize the threat, but I don’t live in fear.
Yon is the darling of the non-reality based community called the right-wing blogosphere. (Just Google his name and look at all the kook sites that pop up.) The fools from those hate sites like to call him their “pro-victory” journalist because he’s willing to blog the talking-points they want to hear (just like the in the comments above).
A professional jounalist, he is not. But he is ex-special forces who started a web journal after he was aquitted in a murder case.
He’s a joke and should not be taken seriously.
Right, because Northwest Guardian, the Boston Herald, The Seattle Times, The Star Tribune, and U.S. News & World Report are “kook” publications.
And Yon has criticized the Army for too much censorship…so he’s hiding things?
Doesn’t add up.
You certainly know his bio pretty well, so I can’t be far off.
Powerline, LittleGreenBigots, PajamasMedia fill the first page of a Google search. Ann Coultier writes (or better yet, shills) for “respected” publications, but that doesn’t add to her actual credibility now does it?
By the same token, she is idolized by lots of right-wingers (not this one, though), so that shouldn’t take away Yon’s credibility.
You’re right about that. I shouldn’t have said he shouldn’t be taken seriously, since I do think he cares about the soldiers. But Yon is proven to be pro-military intervention, de facto pro-war, and a staunch supporter of the faux reasons of why we are there, hence all the water-carriers on the right referencing him so much.
The bigger question is: Why did the Pentagon give a blogger an embedded military assignment, especially while not having the credentials in the first place?
That, and also given the testimony of previously embedded reporters saying they were not allowed to report on facts contrary to the administration’s propaganda, should permanently place that grain of salt in everyone’s mouth
So if it smells like a fish and looks like one too, well…..
cracker?
Why did the Pentagon give a blogger an embedded military assignment, especially while not having the credentials in the first place?
you don’t trust our government? wtf?
Ahh, smell the snark. It’s fantabulous!
“the non-reality based community called the right-wing blogosphere…the fools from those hate sites”
And those sites differ from this one…how?
Chris, if you have to ask that question, you truly are clueless. 🙂
If you want a hate-harbouring contest between the Left and the Right, we can go there.
Your projection is amazing.
Well we have clearly been identifying just how many things you guys hate around here from business to religion. Along the way there is pretty much anyone with an R before there name, and to be fair, about three quarters of the ones with D’s. You hate oil, any sort of utility company (unless they put up a honking big windmill). You hate the papers, most media outlets, anyone that isn’t buying into the Global Warming hysteria and seemingly anyone that attempts to hold any sort of morality-based opinion.
In fact, about the only thing you do seem to like around here in Michael Moore, who is getting the heroes welcome in the wonderfully enlightened state of Iran.
I am not clueless. And I did ask the question. Because I don’t see a dimes worth of difference in rhetoric between those sites and this.
uh, no he isn’t getting a heroes welcome in Iran asshat.
he was asked if he was going to Iran by Wolf Blitzer and he laughed uncontrollably and said that has to be a joke.
keep reading the drudgereport Chrissy, something is bound to be right over there…I mean correct.
man you are a tool
Here’s the difference:
Organizations and Corporations are NOT individuals. The GOP harbors plenty of hate for specific persons – gays, atheists, scientists, immigrants, minorities, on and on and on. If a person falls into one of these categories, then all most conservatives offer is either sanctimonious pity (usually saying that they don’t know god) or contempt.
As liberals, we might not agree with someone’s individual lifestyle, career choice, etc…but we don’t form groups to systemically marginalize, shame, or try to pass bigoted legislation in order to impose an intolerant, insular world view.
All the GOP is now is a f’ed-up mixture of corporate bottom-lines and wedge issues. Most Americans, thanks to W and the GOP controlled congress, realize this and are turning away in droves.