Others See What the Bush Administration Does Not

USATODAY.com reported today: "Al-Hakim, the former commander of the feared Badr Brigade militia, has long complained the Americans have interfered with Iraqi forces' efforts to crack down on Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists. He said the surging violence was due to "being lax in hunting down terrorists and upholding the wrong policies in dealing with them." Al-Hakim said Sunni extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists were to blame for the violence. Al-Hakim's speech marked the third anniversary of the death of his elder brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, who was killed by an al-Qaeda-linked car bomb attack in Najaf." (access story above)

It is simply amazing how a former insurgent commander, but not the Bush Administration, is able to determine that the Iraq war is a failure because the United States lacks any couterterrorism and couterinsurgency strategy. Even al-Hakim determines that al-Qaeda and insurgent factions are the root of sectarian violence and not ordinary Iraqi Sunna and Shia. Still, the United States fails to use the right tools to fight terrorists and insurgents in Iraq. Wake up, Mr. President. Wake up, Secretary Rumsfeld.

Oddly, according to CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/29/afghan.alqaeda/index.html?section=cnn_world),
U.S. forces have captured four al-Qaeda fighters, which seems to indicate that the very strategy the U.S. is implementing in Afghanistan is the strategy needed in Iraq. In other words, if the Bush Administration understands that large units in Afghanistan are ineffective in fighting terrorists and insurgents, then it must realize the same thing regarding Iraq if it wants to achieve similar results in Iraq as in Afghanistan.