Getting It Right

William Arkin:

Then there's the question of surrender: Every time the president mentions al Qaeda in Iraq, he is advertising a brand. Al Qaeda's success from the very beginning has not just been the appeal of Osama bin Laden's description of Islam under attack, nor even the abundance of angry, dissatisfied, and driven men; nor has it necessarily even been anti-Americanism. The success has been a macabre form of his success and the hope it suggests. When U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were attacked in 1998, bin Laden's first spectacular and a follow-on to his fatwa that declared war on the enemies of Islam, volunteers flooded in. Young men who had never even heard of bin Laden were captivated: someone was striking back in their name.

[...]

By conferring such power on al Qaeda, by framing a bigger battle between healthy nations and a marginal terrorist organization, the president is mightily adding to the al Qaeda mystique. We are successful enough to pin down hundreds of thousands of American forces, many terrorists and would-be terrorists think. We are responsible for all of those deaths and injuries against the world's greatest army. We are the centerpiece of the president's State of the Union address, they must happily observe.

It's no wonder that conspiracy-minded types believe that BushCo™ are in league with bin Laden.

Meanwhile:

Five U.S. Soldiers Are Killed When Convoy Is Hit in Mosul

It should go without saying that there was no mention of this last night.

356 days.

.