Withdrawal From Iraq Would Only Create a Front Somewhere Else

Summary

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THE TERRORISTS already believe they have won a great victory by March's election-eve slaughter in Madrid that ousted a confident government in favour of one pledging to withdraw Spain's small troop contingent from Iraq. But that accomplishment would fade into insignificance if the army that deposed Saddam Hussein were to lose its nerve and quit with the peace only half won. Whether countries and individuals agree or not with the legitimacy of the invasion of Iraq to restore United Nations authority, it is indisputable that a fanatical faction of Islamists has declared war, not only on the non- Muslim world, but against modern and moderate Muslim nations sensibly prepared to share the planet with everybody else.

This motley collection of terrorist groups, led by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organisation, has invested heavily in Iraq, exploiting aggrieved Saddam supporters and criminals freed by the departing regime, as well as the security and political chaos and the vulnerability of foreign troops in a very strange land. The militant Islamists' real gripe against Spain goes back to the last battle that evicted Muslim Moors from that soil -- in 1492. Perhaps significantly, that was also the year America was officially discovered, and by a Spanish-sponsored expedition. These Muslim fanatics want to rewind the last 1000 years to return their faith and culture -- or at least their skewed version of it -- back to medieval superpower status. If the Iraqi war and occupation were not happening, they would have to invent it. Indeed they did, on September 11, 2001.

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Withdrawal From Iraq Would Only Create a Front Somewhere Else

Iraqis who support the American-led invasion -- and, despite th...

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