October 18, 2005:
The referendum on the Iraqi constitution is
over, with a turnout of 63 percent, compared with 58 percent in the
January elections to select the transitional government. The al Qaeda
and Baathist terrorists launched a total of 13 attacks - compared with
347 during the January elections. Thus, for the fourth time in the past
twelve months, al Qaeda has failed to halt an election in either
Afghanistan or Iraq. The next elections, to select the parliament, are
slated for December 15 pending the results of the referendum. The
constitution appears to have been ratified.
The successful
referendum underscores just how impotent al Qaeda has become since the
attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Four years ago, al
Qaeda was able to launch a coordinated attack that killed 3,000 people
in the United States. Now, al Qaeda has proven unable to oppose the
United States after American troops have liberated two countries in al
Qaeda's backyard. These singular failures belie the claims of a
quagmire coming from the mainstream media and critics of the
Administration. Al Qaeda has been rejected by the people of Afghanistan
and Iraq.
The American strategy of bringing democracy to Iraq is
succeeding. So are the tactics that are being used to implement it.
While the results are unknown, just the fact that the elections were
held and were mostly violence-free is a victory in and of itself. The
fact remains that the United States is achieving its objectives, while
al Qaeda is not - al Qaeda is even failing to prevent the American
objectives from being met. By any objective standard, al Qaeda is
losing the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. The only places
they seem to be winning are in a number of newsrooms in the United
States, and in Spain, where a series of bombs (combined with a major
public relations misstep by the Spanish government) led to a change in
government and Spanish withdrawal from Iraq.
This is not
surprising. A number of the major media outlets have been focusing on
the IED attack du jour, while missing the bigger picture. Also, since
the failure to locate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the media has
taken a line that the liberation of Iraq was not worth the casualties
(which are half of the total of fatalities suffered by the allies on
D-Day). The media's tendency to accentuate the negative has given al
Qaeda a bit of a lifeline - their only hope for victory is that the
anti-war movement, fuelled by the mainstream media, will wear down the
political will of the United States. - Harold C. Hutchison
(hchutch@ix.netcom.com)