Iraq: A Distraction?

Yet more exchanges between Stewart and I…

(Mike) His administration has even acknowledged it couldn’t focus on Al Qaeda earlier because there were too many resources tied up in Iraq.

(Stewart) Again a Q w/o a flip answer. Focus on what? Do what? Go after what? The whole point and effectiveness of an org like this is to be a ghost. Safety and a force multiplier in being omni-present and nowhere.

(Mike) To be fair, the answer to the question about the Al Qaeda hunt in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a fairly complex one. But I disagree that they are too shadowy to be found - the numerous firefights along the Pakistan border over the past few weeks is plenty of evidence that Al Qaeda is there. There are a couple factors in the timing of Operation Mountain Storm that have to do strictly with internal factors in Pakistan: one was the recent assassination attempt on Musharraf, which convinced him to take the risks entailed with taking the fight to Al Qaeda, rather than just waiting for the next assassination attempt; and it took the recent improvement in relations with India to give him the option of redeploying forces away from the India border. I’ll also hang on to my cynicism and say that there are US-specific factors in the timing of this joint operation: the increased availability of special forces units, as not quite so many are essential in Iraq now; and the fantastic pre-election press Bush will get if bin Laden is captured this summer. See this USA Today article for more: Shifts from bin Laden hunt evoke questions.