Nearly six years after 911 and over four years into the war, the world has indeed changed in many profound ways. Ways that require a means of fomenting a stable Middle East other than the repugnant and ill-fitting shotgun diplomacy employed by the Bushies.
Indeed among the many of the thousands of US soldiers who rushed into battle filled with post-911 retaliatory fervor, it can be sensed that for many, there is a heightened awareness of the turn toward futility their mission has made. It was last March for example, that a Zogby poll revealed that 72% of US soldiers in Iraq feel the war should be ended by March of this year. Twenty-five percent said that all troops should be withdrawn immediately.
Again looking back beyond the four years since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it's difficult to fully fathom what the six years after 911 hath truly wrought. I'm sure there are any number of folks who find it hard squaring the pure hatred many Middle Easterners now feel toward this country, against the outpouring of support displayed by the thousands of Iranians who, within hours of the 911 attacks, broke out in spontaneous candlelight vigils in Tehran as a show of support for America's victims of the attacks.
But that's what missed opportunities can bring. Misunderstanding. Mistrust. Today, almost six years after those poignant Iranian vigils, though scarcely able to handle what they've made of Iraq, the lame-duck Bushies are at it again. Clearly substituting a “can-do” approach with a “what have we got to lose” mentality, they have redirected their stale, agit-prop and now threaten to unleash America's battle-weary dogs of war on the very nation whose inhabitants had openly shared America's post-911 pain.
Reiter, for one, believes that such a move would serve to play directly into al-Qaeda’s hands. Thus, an attack against Iran would provide yet another example of the Bushies missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity to thwart bin Laden.
“Al-Qaeda is a very strict Sunni Islamic organization, and for a strict Sunni Islamist like bin Laden, Iran’s Shia faith is an apostasy,” Reiter pointed out. “What al-Qaeda in Iraq now most fears is not the continuing deployment of U.S. forces but what comes afterward a Shia-dominated Iraq that is closely aligned with Iran. Al-Qaeda in Iraq openly welcomes [a war between Iran and the U.S.] because it sees an opportunity for (a battle between) two of its greatest enemies.”
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