Those who believe that
President Barack Obama had put Al Qaeda to flight, conveniently, before and during his
presidential election, had better pay attention to this Institute for the Study of War update.
The ISW usually gets
it right, while Foggy Bottom, nearly always tied to the apron strings of any
current administration, gets it wrong.
Al Qaeda is on the upswing everywhere in
the Levant – even in Iraq, where the United States spent its treasure in blood,
sweat and tears trying to sow democracy in the area. There, too, Al Qaeda is active, and Iraq may be up for grabs.
“Escalating violence in Iraq crossed a new and very
dangerous threshold this week. Al Qaeda in Iraq launched a concentrated
wave of car-bomb and other attacks specifically against civilian Shi'a targets
in and around Baghdad. Shi'a militias are mobilizing and have begun a
round of sectarian killings facilitated by false checkpoints, a technique
characteristic of the 2006-2007 period. Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki has
taken a number of steps to demonstrate that he remains in control of the
situation. The expansion of Shi'a militia activity, however, is likely to
persuade many Iraqis that he is either not in control or is actively abetting
the killings. The re-mobilization of Shi'a militias in Iraq coincides
with the formal announcement by Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah of
his organization's active military participation in the Syrian civil war.
Al Qaeda in Iraq's sectarian mass-murder attacks coincide with the announcement
by AQI's affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al Nusra, that attacking Hezbollah is that
group's primary target henceforth. The stage appears to be set not merely
for the collapse of the Iraqi state into the kind of vicious sectarian killing
and sectarian cleansing that nearly destroyed it in 2006 and 2007, but also for
the expansion of that sectarian warfare throughout both Mesopotamia and the
Levant.”
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