Rick Raw: Al Qaeda Gaining Strength as Date of American Pullout of Afghanistan Draws Near

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

As the date for the Afghanistan draw-down of U. S. Troops nears (July 11, 2011) al Qaeda is gaining strength and power in the Arabian Peninsula, Samolia, and other unstable countries, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The movement grew from its roots in the Afghan mountains to a global force of Jihadists seeking to destroy western civilization, returning the world to Medieval times.

When we invaded Afghanistan right after 9/11 with special forces and surgical bombing campaigns, it played into al Qaeda’s hands.

Suddenly, al Qaeda’s sworn enemy flooded into their backyard so they could conduct assaults on American positions, and melt back into the mountains.

Bin Laden was delighted that Americans had come to fight on his turf. It enabled him to recruit an steady flow of Jihadists from Pakistan into the no-man’s land of the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

When the U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan, the Taliban will gain political power. In fact, the shaky government of Afghanistan is already negotiating with the Taliban to include them in the government and give them territory. As savvy observers know, the Taliban is in league with al Qaeda because the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Our departure of both Iraq and Afghanistan will only broaden the Taliban and al Taeda’s recruiting drives and their political power. It’s well known that both the Taliban and al Qaeda are receiving sophisticated arms from Iran, which will be a greater ally of the Jihadist movement in the future.

With no attacks from the U.S. on al Qaeda’s bases of operation in Afghanistan, they’ll have plenty of time, resources, and arms to plan terrorist strikes inside the U.S., Britain, and the rest of Europe.

The recent interception of the UPS cargo mail bombs were mailed from Yemen to two Chicago synagogues. These were sophisticated explosive devices using high grade explosives packed in printer cartridges.

Here in the U.S., we can expect more attempted attacks from al Qaeda bases of operation. For every hundred attacks that are thwarted by U.S. intelligence, they only need one to get through.

It make take years or months, but al Qaeda is not going to stop. They’re in it for the next Millenium.

It’s inevitable that sooner or later we can expect large scale terrorist attacks on our subway systems and other soft targets like large malls or synagogues. All Westerners are targets, especially Americans and Israelis.

In Kuwait’s "Al Seyassah" newspaper, Ahmad Abdal Aziz Al-Jarallah said, "The Saudi’s have developed a unique way of dealing with Jihadists. The royal family knows that by targeting innocent civilians, al Qaeda damages orthodox Islam."

"They have implemented a multipronged strategy to stamp out extremism. Security measures are just one part. Equally important is psychological counseling of extremists to correct their religious behavior. "

They even mentor families of those who have been lured into extremism.
In other words, they deprogram these brain washed youth that throwing away their lives in a suicide bombings is a mortal sin against Islam.

So, how do we fight them when we pull out of Afghanistan? We must cut the head off the snake by finding al Qaeda’s central command bases, spread out over the globe.

More ground intelligence is needed using undercover Arab spies. When we find a central command, we take it out with a Predator drone. But we have to verify its authenticity as a legitimate target. That’s where ground intelligence is needed.

It will be difficult and will require the cooperation of other countries like Pakistan, which harbors al Qaeda/Taliban sympathizers who secretly support their operations with money and arms.

More importantly, we have to send regular Muslims into the extremist enclaves to counsel them to break the bonds of their extremist beliefs as evil not a religious crusade. Of course, we should kill bin Laden ASAP. He’s breathed our air long enough.

(Certain facts and a quote gleaned from "The Week." editorial "Is Al Qaida stronger than ever")