tdaxp

OD, a new tdaxp commentator on loan from Castle Argghhh!, has been contributing to the discussion on the thousand-year implication of the Iraq War. Among many good points, though, he makes a simple but understandable mistake:

You suggest that imposing a grim fate on Iraq's Sunnis is just revenge, because Sunnis attacked New York on 911.

Certainly the Iraq War was good and just, but saying the Iraq War was revenge for 9/11 against the Sunni Arabs is like saying that leukemia is revenge for dizziness against cancer cells.

Rather, the Iraq War is directed feedback against the Sunni Arab world -- both the tribal states that do nothing and the National-Secularist states that destroy Arab civilization.

A certain amount of "noise" -- murders, ethnic cleansings, genocides, and the like -- are to be expected from any part of the non-integrating Gap. Generally we care nothing for this, as such tragedies are symptoms of life outside the Core. Thus AIDS ravages Africa, women are honored-killed in Muslim lands,

9/11 -- because it was directed against citizens, of the Core, in the Core, on a massive scale -- was not just noise. It was an unacceptable breach of the quarantine the civilized world puts on the barbarians. The immediate task was to prevent the same stateless network that conducted the attacks, al Qaeda, of doing so again. Thus the Afghan War. But far more important was perturbing the Sunni Arab system to change We do this by overloading the Sunni Arabs -- sending as much feedback to them as possible.





The Iraq War accomplished this goal in several ways. Among others:

• The world-historic shift of Baghdad from a center to Sunni to Shiite civilization


• The great feelings of humiliation -- that is, collective weakness -- such engenders among Sunni Arabs


• The great feelings of betrayal -- that is, the inability of Sunni Arab governments to forestall such humiliation -- such engenders among Sunni Arabs


• The great feelings of worthlessness -- that is, the inability of Sunni Arab governments to reverse the betrayal -- such engenders among Sunni Arabs

The Iraq War had many other benefits besides, and those should not be minimized, but feedback is the essential part of the conflict. The humiliation, betrayal, and worthlessness throughout that part of the world is the appropriate response for 9/11 -- not just about of justice (though of course it is) and not just out of revenge (though of course it is) -- but through the hope of change those tidings bring.

"Full Spectrum Struggle Is Not MBA Struggle," by Dan, tdaxp, 8 May 2005, http://tdaxp.blogspirit.com/archive/2005/05/08/full_spectrum_struggle_is_not_mba_struggle.html.

"QDR: China Tops Iraq, Osama?," by Noah Shachtman, Defense Tech, 23 January 2005, http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002110.html (from DNI),

"The Counterrevolution in Military Affairs ," by Ralph Peters, The Weekly Standard, 6 February 2006, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/649qrsob.asp (from TPMB).

Months ago, I wrote:

Whether you are an army or a movement, you are attacked where you are weakest by someone else where they are strongest. They will exploit their advantage over you where they chose. Over and over again, this is how wars start. It's how battles start. It is how any conflict starts.

It's still true. Even if it means agreeing with the QDR and Rumsfeld. Even if it means disagreeing with Shactman and Peters

"I only have one question then," by Thomas Freridge, tdaxp, http://tdaxp.blogspirit.com/archive/2005/01/13/a_genius_speaks.html, 14 January 2005.

I only have one question then......why the previous animosity between the baathist party and al-quaida?

There are clear ideological differences. The Ba'ath want a multireligious centralized Arab state. I do not believe it is slanderous that they admired the Nazi Party for nearly achieving this among "Europeans." While National-Socialists could be Catholic, Protestant, Nordic Pagan, Mystic, etc, all were subordinated in a ethnic-based totalitarian state.

The Islamists (Wahabis, Salafists, al-Qaeda, "al-Qaeda in Iraq" (the old "Jihad and Polytheism")) want a monoreligious centralized multinational state. al-Qaeda has recruited French, blacks, hispanics, Chinese, Arabs, Philipinos, etc.

I think the struggle in Iraq was so vicious because they were recruiting among the same group -- the heavily westernized, mobile, and education Sunni Arab Muslim minority. As the sanctions and the Saddam tyrannt destroyed Iraq, each began to coopt the other's rhetoric. But they have different utopias -- each sees its own "future worth creating."

Strafor hsa sad that anywhere from a half to two-thirds of insurgent violence in Iraq is Ba'athi. Most of the rest is al-Qaeda and copycats.

If I am reading Zen Pundit correctly, his argument is this: The Ba'ath are functioning in a terror-cell system devised before the war. The terror-cell system is reinforced on tribal and clan lines, which makes it more motivated but less resistant to counterattack. The plan of the terror-cell is to destroy the leadership and technocrats of any government or party that opposes them. They will attempt to do the same thing to our army (the have attempted assassinating U.S. civilian and military officials). They will do the same to any other army in Iraq (say if we leave and Iran, Saudi, Syria, etc tries to invade). If they are current more violent that the rest of the insurgency combined, then I assume that the Salafists will be the next to go after the drive out "foreigners." And the numbers seem to be on their side.

Al-Qaeda has faith in God. If they win in Iraq, it is due to the glory of God. If they lose, it is part of God's larger plan. If they die in Iraq, they shall be rewarded as martyrs.

They have common enemies, and they have long tried to use each other, but they are not friends. I remember seeing pictures of the Ba'athi general and his son who were burned alive in Fallujah. And we have to destroy them both.