Validating al Qaeda's Strategy

A couple of days ago, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we'll do is validate the al Qaeda strategy." It is true that al Qaeda will celebrate if the United States withdraws from Iraq. However, they also will celebrate if we stay. There is an important element of al Qaeda's strategy that Dick Cheney chooses to overlook: al Qaeda seeks to draw the United States and other Western powers into military conflicts in the Muslim world, especially in Arab states. Our military presence in Iraq serves al Qaeda's interests on many levels:

• Recruitment
• "Live-Fire" Training
• Fundraising
• Turning "hearts and minds" around the world against the U.S. and the West
  

We cannot win Iraq by military force, especially with the indifference and abuse we have so often heaped on the ordinary citizens. Keeping our army there when there is no achievable military objective isn't steadfastness, it's playing into the hands of al Qaeda.

Technorati tags: , Dick Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, Iraq War, Al Qaeda