We Won! So Let's Go Home

The WaPo is reporting that the U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating blows to Al Qaeda in Iraq, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group.

The Bush administration, of course, began describing AQI as the chief bogeyman after other stay-the-course rationales sunk under their own weight, including the bald-faced lie that it was these insurgents who launched the 9/11 terror attacks.

But while AQI has indeed been dealt a number of crippling blows since the Surge began, it represents but a small fraction of the insurgency and WaPo writers Thomas E. Ricks and Karen De Young note that there are risks in declaring victory:

* AQI has been resilient in the past and could rise again.

* It would acknowledge the obvious – that the war has become a civil war that the U.S. has no business being involved in.

And then there is my favorite:

Nature abhors a vacuum and if AQI has indeed been dealt a fatal blow, it will only be a matter of time before others step in to fill the void.

RUT RO!

Meanwhile, The New York Times says that Al Qaeda has launched an Internet jihad aimed at American viewers.

Terrorism experts say there are as many as 100 English language sites offering militant Islamic views, and while their reach is difficult to assess, it is clear that militants are seeking to appeal to young American and European Muslims by playing on their anger over the war in Iraq and the image of Islam under attack.

Says The Times:

Tedious Arabic screeds are reworked into flashy English productions. Recruitment tracts are issued in multiple languages, like a 39-page, electronic, English version of a booklet urging women to join the fight against the West.