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12 September 2004

Across a whole range of objectives, al-Qaeda has accomplished more of its goals than the US has of its

A different perspective on the post 9/11 world, one that is at odds with what the Bush administration is touting.
Al-Qaeda has succeeded in several of its main goals. It had been trying to convince Muslims that the United States wanted to invade Muslim lands, humiliate Muslim men, and rape Muslim women. Most Muslims found this charge hard to accept. The Bush administration's Iraq invasion, along with the Abu Ghuraib prison torture scandal, was perceived by many Muslims to validate Bin Laden's wisdom and foresightedness.

After the Iraq War, Bin Laden is more popular than George W. Bush even in a significantly secular Muslim country such as Turkey. This is a bizarre finding, a weird turn of events. Turks didn't start out with such an attitude. It grew up in reaction against US policies.

It remains to be seen whether the US will be forced out of Iraq the way it was forced out of Iran in 1979. If so, as al-Zawahiri says, that will be a huge victory. A recent opinion poll did find that over 80 percent of Iraqis want an Islamic state. If Iraq goes Islamist, that will be the biggest victory the movement has had since the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. An Islamist Iraq might well be able ultimately to form a joint state with Syria, starting the process of the formation of the Islamic superstate of which Bin Laden dreams.

So what is going to happen in Iraq?

  1. Freedom and democray reign in a new democratic republic of Iraq?
  2. Former CIA asset Allawi (or new puppet) becomes Saddam2, or at least serves up hefty dose of oppression to Iraqi people?
  3. Islamic fundamentalists wrestle control of government, and begin a New Taliban regime?
  4. Continuation of the status quo, death statistics of US soldiers, insurgents, and Iraqi citizens accumulate more.