Doing Al Qaeda's Dirty Work for Them

by Bob Wallace

So now we've supposedly got a tape by bin Laden, who I believe is as dead as Elvis, in which he calls on Muslims to show solidarity with the Iraqi people in the face of a US invasion. The administration pounced on this like Sylvester on Tweety, claiming it proved a link between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the tape "underscores what the president and Secretary Powell have said about al Qaeda linking up with Iraq."

I've got a better explanation. Al Qaeda wants the US to invade Iraq. Some of the European countries, such as France and Germany, are trying to derail a US invasion. Russia doesn't want an invasion, either.

But al Qaeda does. Saddam Hussein is an atheist who believes only in himself, and a secular dictator sitting on top of an ocean of oil. They want to make sure there is an invasion to get rid of Hussein, and what better way than to claim there really is a link between Hussein and al Qaeda? This way, the US will invade, kill Hussein and all his buddies, and take over Iraq. We'll be getting rid of Hussein for al Qaeda. Then, ten years down the road, the US pulls out, and al Qaeda takes over the place and installs a fundamentalist regime. Then they'll have hundreds of billions of dollars from the oil.

All of this are just some basic tactics in Sun Tzu's The Art of War. The first tactic is, "All warfare is based on deception." Then we have, "Hold out baits to lure the enemy," like flying airplanes into skyscrapers. Another is to make him fight on many fronts, like Afghanistan and Iraq. Still another is to make it a long war to impoverish the enemy's citizens.

Another one is to win battles without firing a shot ("those skilled in war subdue the enemy's army without battle"). Like getting the US to get rid of Hussein for them.

Are the people in the administration so stupid that this hasn't occurred to them? I suspect they aren't, and it has. I also suspect they don't care, because they are so arrogant they believe that nothing can stop them. Sun Tzu had a comment about that, too – "if he is arrogant, try to encourage his egotism."

The United States has turned into an empire. It's getting bigger, too. But, all empires fall. They always withdraw. Are the neocons so stupid they don't know this? I suspect that in the case of the United States they don't believe it. They apparently think the US is going to be the one exception in the history of the world.

The word for this kind of arrogance is Hubris. And Hubris is always followed by Nemesis.

Let's see what happens ten years down the road, after the US invades and conquers most of the Islamic world. Invading is one thing...occupying is another.

February 13, 2003

Bob Wallace [send him mail], a former newspaper reporter and editor, and an incurable lover of puns from St. Louis, is now traveling the country.