Al-Qaeda Outwitted Bush, Neocons - By Robert Parry

[kpete]

Al-Qaeda Outwitted Bush, Neocons

By Robert Parry
October 29, 2009

As security worsens in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is clear that al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies outwitted President George W. Bush and his neoconservative advisers by tying down U.S. forces in Iraq for five years while the Islamic militants rebuilt their forces for the war on their “central front.”


The growing U.S. casualty list in Afghanistan and the Taliban advances in nuclear-armed Pakistan also underscore the significance of a late 2005 message from a top al-Qaeda operative, known as Atiyah, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was then leading al-Qaeda’s faction in Iraq.

“Prolonging the war (in Iraq) is in our interest,” Atiyah said in a letter that upbraided Zarqawi for his reckless and hasty actions. Atiyah, who is believed to be a Libyan named Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, emphasized the need for Zarqawi to operate more deliberately in order to build political strength and drag out the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

............

It's easy to see the logic behind Atiyah's advice. In 2002 and 2003, as Bush redirected U.S. military and intelligence resources to Iraq, al-Qaeda and the Taliban gained a valuable respite. After the U.S. invasion, Bush got bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, giving al-Qaeda and the Taliban more time to revamp and re-arm their forces.

.............

Even now, as President Obama ponders what to do with the botched war in Afghanistan, the neocons bait him about alleged weakness and defeatism. Their allies in Congress, the likes of Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman, seem determined to undermine the Obama administration at every turn if the President doesn’t take the neocons' advice and escalate the war.

It seems that Official Washington can’t face up to its disastrous misjudgments over the past eight years.

more:
http://consortiumnews.com/2009/102909.html

[KansDem]

1. Well, that's not saying much.

It wouldn't take much to "outwit" those rubes...

[LynnTheDem]

2. Yeah and gee couldn't see that one coming. Just ask the Russians.

George W. bUsh, Cheney the dick, all neocons, and most republicans...dumbest MFing idiots on the fucking planet.

[rd_kent]

3. Well, DUH! Outsmarting shrub is not a big challenge.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. As if that was hard to do. nt

[JackRiddler]

5. With due respect to a great reporter, the premise that "Al Qaeda" tied down the US in Iraq...

which goes largely unexamined here, is US propaganda. "Al Qaeda in Iraq" was a name that the US at first attached to the anti-occupation insurgency, so that the predictable native resistance to the foreign invaders could be attacked as "foreign terrorists." Then it was blamed for every single terror bombing across Iraq in 2005-2006. Foreign fighters and Iraqi fighters organized under foreign networks amount to less than 1 percent of the Iraqi resistance and militias.

[glitch]

8. Thank You!

I love Robert Parry but WTF?

[Junkdrawer]

9. Indeed. And whereas the Taliban is a force in AfPak, "al Qaeda"...

as a cohesive political/military force is a US invention.

[Contrary1]

6. In a war of wits, Bush and the Neocons are/were unarmed. n/t

[Demeter]

7. There's NO Profit in Peace!

Hell, we'd have to pay real money for a pipeline and the energy that flows through it, if we didn't do it by force of arms! Where would the oil companies get their billions in payoffs, then?