A big victory in The War On Terror
And an information victory at that. Today Jordan put a captured “would be suicide terrorist” on tv. (Link is to an AP report.)
Why is this a victory? Because the harsh evil of Al Qaeda is front and center in Sunni Arab media.
The lede, with the essential information:
Strapped with a disabled explosives belt, an Iraqi woman arrested Sunday confessed on television to trying to blow herself up with her husband in one of three suicide attacks earlier this week that killed 57 people.
The 35-year-old woman the sister of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s right-hand man who was killed by U.S. forces in Iraq appeared on Jordanian state TV hours after she was captured by security forces who were tipped off by an al-Qaida claim that a husband-and-wife team participated in Wednesday’s bombings.
Looking nervous and wringing her hands, Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, 35, described how she failed to blow herself up during a wedding reception at the Radisson SAS hotel on Wednesday night after struggling with the cord on her explosives belt.
“My husband wore an (explosives-packed) belt and put one on me. He taught me how to use it,” al-Rishawi said, wearing a white head scarf, a black gown and a disabled bomb belt tied around her waist.
“My husband detonated (his bomb) and I tried to explode my belt but it wouldn’t,” she said. “People fled running and I left running with them.”…
The woman and her husband are Iraqis, so the early reports that the attackers were Iraqi nationals seem to be confirmed. Her brother was also a member of Al Qaeda–and he’s dead. Of course Zarqawi hails from Jordan (the town of Zarqa) and no doubt Al Qaeda has “supporting elements” inside Jordan.
The AP reports says: “…No Jordanians were involved in the actual attacks, but several Jordanian followers of al-Zarqawi have been arrested…”
Another a propos quote:
“We are partners in facing terrorism,” Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. “Amman’s ordeal and Jordan’s ordeal is the ordeal of all Iraqis.”
The terrorists’ “target is to kill tolerance and destroy coexistence in Arab and Muslim cities,” al-Dulaimi said.
Why is this a victory? Because it demonstrates, unequivocally, that Al Qaeda is merely Murder Incorporated, and most of its victims are Muslims. Al Qaeda’s biggest recruiting tool was – and is— the political failure of the Arab Muslim world. In this dysfunctional world tyranny and terror reinforce one another, with the people of the Middle East the inevitable victims.
From one of my Creators Syndicate columns in October 2005:
Undermining its megalomaniacal appeal meant exposing it as the inhuman, ungodly Mass Murder Inc. it is. The optimal outcome would be to expose Al-Qaida as a threat to Muslims and detrimental to the best ideals of Islam.
When Al-Qaida’s zealots blow up trains in Spain or subways in London, those are attacks of their choosing conducted on “infidel terrain.” The genius of the war in Iraq is a brutal but necessary form of strategic judo: It brought the War on Terror into the heart of the Middle East and onto Arab Muslim turf. In Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s theo-fascists have been spilling Arab blood, and Al Jazeera has noticed that, too.
Arabs have also seen the Iraqi people’s struggle and their emerging political alternative to despotism and feudal autocracy.
If the Indonesian and Morrocan experience is anything to go by, we can expect the AQ Murder Inc’s popularity to decline sharply in Jordon, previously one of the last places in the Middle East where AQ polled better than 50% ( at least per that widely quoted Pew results published a few months ago ). Especially important is the recognition, expressed by the Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi in the quoted article, of a common Arab revulsion, in Jordan as well as Iraq, to the horrendous tactics of AQ. Hard to swim in a stream growing ever more hostile.
Comment by Michael Apple — 11/13/2005 @ 4:28 pm
Al Jazeera may have noticed, but they have been silent about their role as a conduit for Qaeda PR the last 3 years. Without Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, Al Qaeda would not have been able to hit the mainstream and wreck as much havoc. The worst incident, an opinion article on Al Jazeera detailing how civilians working for the Iraqi government, working with the coalition, or working in respective civilian roles were legitimate targets for terrorist attacks based on the flimsiest of rationales.
Comment by Cog — 11/13/2005 @ 4:33 pm
Latest bulletin on TV says that all the bombers entered Iraq through Syria. Naturally Assad says he needs help controlling his border, an implied confirmation.
Comment by Howard Veit — 11/13/2005 @ 4:37 pm
Austin, this is an interesting insight and a good post. What it suggests to me is that if we were to pull out of Iraq prematurely, al Qaeda would be able to reverse the ’strategic judo’ and go back to blowing up infidels in Europe and North America. That would take enormous pressure off of them. And in that context, ‘premature’ withdrawal is one in which the Iraqis aren’t capable of handling Zarqawi, al Qaeda and the remaining Saddamites without substantial help from us. The Muslim world has to see a capable Iraqi police, and capable Iraqi army, go on the the hunt and remove the remaining terrorists in their country. That will drive home the message the al Qaeda does not stand in the interests of Islam.
Comment by Steve White — 11/13/2005 @ 4:45 pm
There ARE Victories In The War On Terror …like this big one.
Trackback by The Moderate Voice — 11/13/2005 @ 5:12 pm
Iraqi Woman Confesses on Jordan TV Strapped with a disabled explosives belt, an Iraqi woman arrested Sunday confessed on television to
Trackback by Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator — 11/13/2005 @ 5:17 pm
I think that it will take more than one bombing on ‘neutral’ ground to awaken the Middle East. And tranform it/them into tolerant, even evolved people and societies. Yes, we have come a little ways from State/Powell’s corner grocery store analogy. Thankfully. But we still have so much further to go.
Comment by Elmo — 11/13/2005 @ 5:18 pm
The problem with the bomb belt malfunctioning points to a need for much more suicide practice. The instructor will say “please pay attention, I will demonstrate this only once!”.
Comment by SezaGeoff — 11/13/2005 @ 5:51 pm
The Jordan Err Austin Bay pointed out that the appearance of the woman failed-bomber on Jordanian television is a victory:
Trackback by Don Surber — 11/13/2005 @ 6:42 pm
It would be nice if the growing Muslim oppostion to terrorism was in the nature of “Boy, this sure is evil and wrong”, rather than “They’re not just killing Westerners anymore.” Like, “Boy, this sure is evil and wrong.”
Comment by Dave S. — 11/13/2005 @ 7:09 pm
It would be nice if the growing Muslim oppostion to terrorism was in the nature of “Boy, this sure is evil and wrong”, rather than “They’re not just killing Westerners anymore.”
Comment by Dave S. — 11/13/2005 @ 7:10 pm
Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest. President George Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress on Thursday night, September 20, 2001.
Comment by ToddRundgrenisGod — 11/13/2005 @ 7:34 pm
Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest. President George Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress on Thursday night, September 20, 2001.
Comment by ToddRundgrenisGod — 11/13/2005 @ 7:35 pm
“The genius of the war in Iraq is a brutal but necessary form of strategic judo: It brought the War on Terror into the heart of the Middle East and onto Arab Muslim turf.” Turn about is fair play, after all.
Comment by Bildo — 11/13/2005 @ 7:42 pm
I think it would be an interesting counterpoint to the MSM focus on US bodycount if someone were to start keeping a tally of how many Muslims have been killed by terrorists in order to show that terrorists are much more dangerous to their co-religionists than they are to us. Anyone want to take on the project?
Comment by Chris Cardiff — 11/13/2005 @ 8:29 pm
Would-Be Jordan Bomber Confesses On TV Amman, Jordan — Strapped with a disabled explosives belt, an Iraqi woman arrested Sunday confessed on television to trying to blow herself up with her husband in one of three homicide attacks earlier this week that killed 57 people. The
Trackback by Small Town Veteran — 11/13/2005 @ 8:51 pm
Just wondering how you assess the death of al-Duri. People at DriftwoodUSA http://driftwoodusa.blogspot.com/ seemed to attribute a lot more importance that the rest of the MSM and other bloggers. I appreciate your thoughts.
Comment by Belmondo — 11/13/2005 @ 9:28 pm
[…] on Sunday 13 November 2005 Read it. It’s good stuff. Austin Bay Blog » A big victory in The War On Terror No comments have been […]
Pingback by TexasXtreme » Austin Bay: Big Victory — 11/13/2005 @ 11:12 pm
Enjoy this victory quickly. If the story about the 29 sites and this story about the year old laptop are true, then we are in for the most exciting and tense period since the Cuban missile crisis.
Comment by Neo — 11/13/2005 @ 11:18 pm
I see this as one of many victories. There have been operations in the past that have helped to turn opinion away from the terrorists. The huge bombings at mosques, the car bombing of the group of children last summer, for example. This was a big one because it seems to have had impact on the population of Jordan. As was noted, Jordan is the one area of the Arab world where support of Al Qaeda was still high. I suspect they have been having growing problems with funding and recruiting as this summer wore on. And now with the Iraqi army starting to establish a permanent presence in Anbar provice in Iraq, they are going to have more trouble moving around and staying organized. They have lost a lot of upper and middle level cadre the past 30 days. The establishment of permanent bases has started from the Syrian border and is moving East. The toughest nut to crack is going to be Ramadi but once it is, the terrorists will have no base of operations where they can roam with more-or-less impunity. Add to that the fact the the Jordanian intelligence services will now be operating in the area in a direct effort to drag Al Zarqawi “from his hole”, and you pretty much have a recipie for (another) disaster for Al Qaeda. They lost Afghanistan. They have been hammered in Pakistan. There were major blows in the Phillippines and Indonesia last week. And they are about to be soundly defeated in Iraq. They are going to be sounding like “The Black Knight” of Monty Python fame soon. Still shouting arrogant words after having been chopped to bits. After 9/11 it was commonly speculated that it would probably take about five years to get a handle on Al Qaeda and that seems about right. And if the invasion of Iraq provided a place for Al Qaaeda to make a stand, show their true mettle, and lose both in a military sense and lose the hearts and minds of the Muslims, then in a strategic sense, the invasion of Iraq becomes a stroke of genius. It became the focal point of Al Qaeda’s fight and seems about to result in their very sound defeat.
Comment by crosspatch — 11/13/2005 @ 11:31 pm
Monday’s Winds of War: 14 Nov 2005 Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday…
Trackback by Winds of Change.NET — 11/14/2005 @ 12:52 am
Rattling the “Bush Lied” Crowd’s Cages It’s nice to see John McCain coming out swinging. There are lots of things I don’t like about that guy but on this at least he knows who the real enemy is (…
Trackback by Dean's World — 11/14/2005 @ 3:06 am
AP = Al-Zarqawi Press? In my morning perusal of the news to see if anything important happened (quick answer: no), I happened across an AP article which sounds like a puff piece for Al Zazqawi starting out with:
Trackback by L'Ombre de l'Olivier — 11/14/2005 @ 4:04 am
Actually publicizing a Muslim death count does make a lot of sense. At some point we have to impress upon the average Muslim man on the street that THEY are going to come out on the short end no matter the direction this struggle takes. First, radical Islamists have demonstrated that they are willing to murder Muslims just as quickly as they murder anyone else. Also, the average Muslim may feel safe today and tacitly support these butchers, but what happens when Al Queda redefines the definition of “pious†believer or when they change their “grievance†of the week? The people right in the frontline will be the average Muslim wedding guest or produce shopper. The sooner they recognize this and support the promotion of a civil society the better for both them and us.
Comment by John B. — 11/14/2005 @ 2:06 pm
[…] 8220;root causes on its home turf” is winning. When I pointed out (November 13) that Zarqawi’s attacks in Jordan were a political and information victory for the US, there were doubters. Se […]
Pingback by Austin Bay Blog » Will Iraqi realists win? Will Western realists win? — 11/25/2005 @ 8:35 am
[…] to be a likely trend going that way. Austins Bay reports on this and what is going on. See this as good news in the War on Terror. I think he’s […]
Pingback by Keith D. Milby :: blog » Blog Archive » Terrorists Losing Favor with Muslims — 9/25/2007 @ 8:05 am