Mr. Bush challenges Al Qaeda To A Battle Of Wills, But Then Backs Down From The Fight

One of the most dangerous things that a nation can do is to challenge a weak opponent to a battle of wills, and then the stronger power backs down from the challenge. This has happened with France in Vietnam after WWII. It happened with the U.S. in Vietnam after the French withdrew. It happened with the failed Soviet invasion in Afghanistan to far weaker Mujahideen fighters. But it was the failed British effort to occupy Iraq that started in 1922, that ended in failure in 1958, that has acted as a role model for U.S. failure in Iraq.

In a new video, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri, the second in command in Al Qaeda is claiming a military "victory" over the U.S. in Iraq because the U.S. is intending to draw down some forces from Iraq in 2006. This hardened veteran of the Afghanistan War with the Soviets, who was even wounded in combat there, knows much about outlasting the will of a stronger opponent. Weaker opponents of the U.S. know they can outlast the will of the American people or government. Both the government and people of the U.S. make broad boasts of how powerful that we are, and how we'll beat any small opponent. But as a conflict drags on with American dead and an economic drag, the U.S. always walks away from the fight, no matter how weak the opponent. Weak opponents of the U.S. have sized the U.S. up as the "paper tiger" that Asian communists had once claimed.

This is a deeply depressing factor, because it means that the U.S. invites more organizations such as Al Qaeda to act against the U.S. or U.S. allies. Establishing a war of wills, in which the U.S. never fully intended to stand head to head with an opponent in a war of wills, and then being seen as backing down only encourages more opponents of the U.S. to act.

The U.S. was never in any position to fulfill a battle of wills with Al Qaeda or other Islam insurgent forces in Iraq. With no military draft such as in WWI,WWII, Korea or Vietnam, and a full 40% of forces in Iraq are National Guard units, only equipped for response to state natural disaster or mountain rescue response, then large numbers of U.S. forces in Iraq such Oregon's thousands of National Guard members were sent into a combat situation wit severe shortages of combat goods such as ammunition, radios, body and Humvee armor.

When Mr. Bush changed the mission in Iraq from one of ridding the nation of Saddam Hussein, but then made the mission a challenge to Al Qaeda, there was the not military preparation or manpower forces to fight a long and protracted war with insurgents and Al Qaeda in Iraq. Britain fought a losing war with insurgents in Iraq from 1922 until 1958. Japan and Germany could be defeated, but not Iraqi insurgents who continued to battle Briitish forces for a full 13 years after WWII ended. The battle with Iraqi insurgents and ethnic tensions lasted from after WWI until well after WWII. A full 84 years. The U.S. never had the will or economic strength to fight another 84 years in Iraq when Mr. Bush laid down the gauntlet to Al Qaeda. This was a challenge that the U.S. should never had made.

Besides the military and equipment shortages that doomed any long term challenge of Al Qaeda or insurgents in Iraq, economic realities doomed this challenge to Al Qaeda from the beginning.

In just five years, Mr. Bush has accumulated a foreign debt of $1.09 trillion dollars, more than the $1.01 trillion dollars in foreign debt that it took 42 American Presidents 242 years to achieve.

Foreign states such as Japan hold $682 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds. China holds $248 bilion in U.S. Treasury bonds. Other states including South Korea and and the Caribbean hold the remainer of the $1.09 billion in new and accumulated foreign debt that keeps the U.S. government from financial collapse and bankruptcy.

With a national debt of $8.1 trillion in national debt against a U.S. Treasury income of just $2.2 trillion in income, the U.S. was never in any economic position to fight a protracted war in Iraq that already has cost the nation $232 billion in just three years. Even a claimed bill in Congress to cut the U.S. budget deficit by $40 billion only proposed to do so by cutting social services to the elderly, poor and handicapped over a five year period, but then included a $70 tax cut that mainly benefits the wealthy, so the net effect of the bill is another $30 billion dollar increase in the Federal budget deficit.

There was never the will in the Bush Administration or with the American people to fight an ethnic war or a war with terrorist organizations in Iraq for another 84 years, since the establishement of Iraq by Winston Churchill in 1922 as a British occupation state of three ethnic groups with nothing in common. Since 1922, the ethnic conflict in Iraq has been constant.

Mr. Bush used overheated political rhetoric to bash critics of his war in Iraq, claiming that an early withdrawal would send a dangerous signal to terrorist and insurgent forces. Yet it is Mr. Bush himself which destabilized Iraq with military action to topple Saddam Hussein, then changed the mission to a challenge of wills with insurgents such as Al Qaeda, and now is withdrawing some troops due to military manpower, equipment, economic and political realities. There was never the will of the American people, let alone the Bush Administration to battle Al Qaeda for decades in Iraq. Now with Al Qaeda already declaring a "victory" in Iraq, this dangerous terrorisyt organization appears to be emboldened by the perception of the backdown of American will in Iraq. This truly is dangerous.