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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Sam who wrote (224730)3/20/2007 9:38:30 PM
From: carranza2  Read Replies (2) of 281500
 
Good article, but I certainly would not declare victory over AQ so long as OBL and Zawahiri are alive.

And while AQ as an operational entity may have been crippled, it doesn't take much to cause a tremendous amount of dislocation. All it takes to create a substantial multi-billion shock to Western economies is a car bomb loaded with radioactive material from a few old x-ray machines going off in Wall St. And while AQ might not be responsible for it, such an event would be inspired by what it stands for. It would put us back into the same situation we were on 9/12 and might provoke the kind of response that elevated OBL into an icon. The domestic response would be, thanks to the divisions caused by Iraq, nowhere as unified as it was after 9/11.

The atomization of AQ is a very dangerous thing.

Fallows in effect suggesting that we declare "mission accomplished" is rich irony. But like Bush's mission, I think it is premature to declare victory on the basis of a situation that could change drastically in an instant.
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