perfidy

James, of the indispensable Outside the Beltway, links to a New York Times/AP report that a high-ranking Al Qaida officer has been captured in Iraq by US and Kurdish forces.

Osama bin Laden's terror network is seeking a foothold in Iraq as evidenced by the recent arrest of a top al-Qaida operative trying to enter northern Iraq, the commander of coalition forces said Thursday. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez cited the capture of Hassan Ghul by U.S.-allied Kurdish forces as evidence of al-Qaida's interest in establishing operations in this country. Officials in Washington reported Ghul's arrest Saturday, describing him as a senior recruiter and facilitator for al-Qaida who reported directly to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the architects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks who was captured in March near Islamabad, Pakistan.

"The capture of Ghul is pretty strong proof that al-Qaida is trying to gain a foothold here to continue their murderous campaigns,'' Sanchez said. "Ghul's capture is great news for both the Iraqis, the coalition and the international community's war against terrorism.''

US officials have said that most of the attacks against coalition forces have come from the remnants of Saddam's Baathist regime. But recently, military officials have noted the use of "al-Qaida-like tactics," including suicide attacks.

Before the war, I heard many people argue that the religious fanatic al Qaida would never work with the secular Baathist. They denied any connection between Saddam's regime and al Qaida. This was obviously untrue at the time, and has become even less true over the last year. Even if the two groups absolutely hated each other, they would still have the common interest of defeating or at least attacking the US. And it is after all an Arab proverb, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." For decades, there has been a terrorist network. The IRA trained in Libya. Then the IRA trained Columbian drug cartels. The various Marxist or pseudo Marxist terror groups exchanged numbers while training in the USSR, or at Soviet sponsored training camps in the Middle East. Whether the terror groups were Marxist, Religious, Nationalist or just bugfuck, they all have each other’s numbers in the Rolodex.
And this network was in communication with the intelligence agencies of the nations that are or were state supporters of terror. We know that al Qaida met in the Czech Republic with mid level officers in Saddam’s intelligence apparatus. We know that Ansar Al-Islam has been operating in Iraq, and had training camps there. The capture of a ranking member of al Qaida is just one more piece of evidence.

We have been told to be careful in our denunciations of Islam. It’s only a few isolated, hateful wackos who are attacking us. We have also been told by some that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with and in fact was a distraction from the war on terror.

But the more I read, the more I believe that the problem is not so small. There is a continuum of Islamic terror that stretches from the terrorists themselves at one end; through the Imams who preach hatred for the west in particular and everything that isn’t Islam in general (witness my recent post on the murders of the Buddhist monks, and the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhist statues); through the nominally secular Arab governments that support the terrorists with money and sanctuary, and whose media spread anti-semitism and hatred for America; to the ‘Arab Street’ that openly and loudly celebrates things like 9/11 or the Columbia accident; and on to the mass of the Islamic population that never says a word and thus gives tacit support for all the evil that is done in their name.

It is not enough to hunt down individual terrorists and their cells, destroy their training camps and cut off their funding. We might manage that, sometimes with and sometimes without the cooperation of the governments in the region. But that doesn’t end our problem. They still hate us, not just a few, but majorities in the polls I’ve seen. Granted, they’re being lied to by the official media and their religious leaders. But so were the Germans.

Trent Telenko and Wretchard are right when they fear that a successful large scale attack on the United States could cause widespread devastation in the Middle East. We have been restrained up til now, but there is little hope that we would be if we lost a city to a terrorist nuke. And that possibility is still very real. Libya’s nuclear program was shockingly far advanced, and we knew nothing of it.

We are fighting evil. There should be no doubt about this. People who target civilians for purposes of terror are evil. People who give aid and comfort to them are evil. And the population of Islam is complicit in that evil, because they celebrate when it succeeds, and never utter a word of criticism. Even among the Muslims in this country, we hear very little in the way of condemnation for terror, and we know that their views are not being suppressed by authoritarian governments.

That’s what we’re up against. The third totalitarian movement we have faced in the last century. And they have clearly stated that we are their enemies. We need to take them at their word, and defeat them. If Hitler had been opposed in the twenties, or even in the mid thirties, millions of lives would have been saved. We waited. Communism was worse, and there were many in the west who defended it, excused it, and lied about it. Nevertheless, we opposed it. Right now, Islamic totalitarianism is weak. Now is the time to stamp it out, before it gains the capability do us serious harm.