Rejecting al Qaeda in Iraq

Cliff May:

The first concept to grasp is that the global conflict now underway involves both a clash of arms and a clash of ideas. To succeed in this war will require effective combat on both fronts.

The second concept is this: The clash of arms and the clash of ideas influence one other, often in peculiar and even counter-intuitive ways.

One example: Al-Qaeda in Iraq could not challenge American troops directly. Their solution has been to target innocent Iraqis instead, to slaughter innocent Muslim men, women and children by the hundreds.

Why wouldn’t this cause outrage around the world? It did – but al-Qaeda calculated that in much of the West, the outrage would be directed less at them than at Americans for "stirring up a hornet's nest." And, as they also expected, images of death and destruction, coupled with reports of soldiers killed by roadside bombs, soon would erode the will of many Americans to continue the fight.

Now, however, a new phase in the clash of arms may be having an unanticipated impact on a different audience. A shift in strategy initiated by the new U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, is changing ideas about both al-Qaeda and the U.S. in Muslim societies -- and on the theological plane.

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... Since then al-Qaeda terrorists by the score have been killed, captured and driven out of Anbar. Mneimneh wondered: How would the sheiks and religious scholars justify this alliance to themselves and their people? To put it bluntly, how would they explain partnering with infidels against fellow Muslims?

He found the answer in numerous sermons and publications -- everything from books to blogs and websites. The truth, he discovered is that most Iraqis, unlike so many Westerners, do blame al-Qaeda for the carnage al-Qaeda has carried out. And most Iraqis have not embraced al-Qaeda's brand of Islam, with its barbarism – e.g. the murder of children to teach their parents obedience -- and ultra-fundamentalism.

What's more, Iraqis were deeply offended by al-Qaeda leaders – almost all of them foreigners – saying their interpretation of Islam is flawed and inadequate, as has been that of their families and clans for generations. Mneimneh reports that Iraqi clerics have responded by calling al-Qaeda’s version of Islam "excessive and unfair."

To express such views while al-Qaeda militants were walking the streets would have brought severe reprisals. But over the past few months, as the surge has been making progress, and as more Iraqis have felt more secure, they have been articulating these views loudly and clearly. Mneimneh believes they are being heard beyond Anbar, beyond Iraq and even beyond the Middle East. "This is coming out," he emphasized.

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It is this victory in the battle of ideas that the Democrats also want to walk away from. This victory is as important as the military one and it has been the key to the grass roots reconciliation process that has been taken place on a dramatic scale in Iraq and just as dramatically being ignored by Democrats. Al Qaeda is down to its last allies in the war in Iraq and they are the Democrats in Washington and the nut roots.