Buried Underneath Zarqawi

June 11, 2006

Buried Underneath Zarqawi
Posted by Suzanne Nossel

Word of the killing of Abu Masab al-Zarqawi may count as the best news on the fight against terrorism that the Administration has gotten for months, maybe years. I believe the U.S. must go after the terrorist masterminds leading the Iraqi insurgency, and I congratulate the American troops who accomplished a very tough and important mission.

The problem is that even looking only at this week, the Zarqawi killing came amidst a quite terrifying series of setbacks that should leave us all gravely concerned about how the anti-terror struggle is going. To name a few:

1. Conditions in Iraq Too Bad to Meet Troop Withdrawal Timetable - Call me paranoid, but this news came out on Thursday, the day Zarqawi's death dominated the news and was thus knocked off the front page. It's no surprise given how things have been going that the Administration no longer thinks it realistic to draw down to 100,000 troops by year-end, but it underscores that despite intense political pressures Bush is unable to keep what came close to a promise to the public on the central policy issue of his presidency.

2. Key Parts of Somalia Fall into the Hands of Islamic Extremists - Despite years of covert and overt US efforts to prop up warlords who were Somalia's last line of defense against becoming a militant Islamic state, the outcome we've tried desperately to avoid seems close to fruition, with miltants claiming control over key towns including, it appears, the capital of Mogadishu.

3. Hamas Resumes Terror Campaign - Meanwhile, after a moment of optimism just a week ago, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has taken a (perhaps temporary, though who knows) turn for the worse with Hamas vowing to resume terrorist attacks within Israel proper in retaliation for an apparent incident of Israeli shelling that accidentally resulted in the deaths of 7 civilians on the beach. Meanwhile Hamas issues an almost comically watered-down denial of a purported statement by the organization mourning hte death of Zarqawi.

4. Three Suicides in Guantanamo -The quest to shut down Guantanamo is, incredibly, just one anmong dozens of distinct efforts to halt, correct and reverse the disasterous foreign policy course of the Bush Administration. This piece on the Top 10 reasons to shut down Guantanamo was written a year ago tomorrow. The suicides illustrate the serious error the Administration has made in allowing Guantanamo to persist as a locus of global criticism against our methods in fighting terror. This article in the CSM sums the situation up well.

5. Afghanistan Falling Back into the Hands of the Taliban - This story has been developing over months and years, but finally hit the front page of the NY Times today: just as the US attempts to transition the Afghanistan operation more fully to NATO, the Taliban is mounting a Spring offensive more powerful than most deemed them capable of, deepening questions about how long Hamid Karzai - criticized for weak and corrupt leadership - can continue to hold the country together. Remote parts of Afghanistan are already known al Qaeda refuge. This news raises concerns that the rest of the country may soon become the same.

June 11, 2006 at 10:42 PM in Iraq | Permalink

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June 11, 2006