Why is the war against the Islamists important? And specifically, why is it important to win the Battle for Iraq?
One of the main reasons is precisely because that in order to fight and sustain a religious war, you have to claim that God is on your side. And if God is on your side, then it follows that you will win: No matter the odds against you.
And even more specifically, if you are trying to convince people that blowing up innocent men, women and children is what God wants, against all sensibilities to the contrary, then you have better win to prove that God is on your side.
And if you lose....
If the Islamists, the Jihadists, lose their moral authority; if it starts to appear that God is not on their side, then fewer people are going to sign up to kill innocent men, women and children, which is the only real weapon they have.
That and the media.
The first string of their tether was strained when they got routed so easily in Afghanistan. OBL thought that luring America into that unforgiving country would prove to be the same trap that the Soviets found themselves in. When all it took was a few hundred CIA and Special Operators, air support and some unaligned Afghan tribes less than 30 days to shut down their operation and send the terror "mastermind" fleeing to Pakistan, the only justification could have been that God sneezed during that period of time.
But when al Qaida was routed from Iraq, things started looking like maybe these guys, somewhere along the line, got on God's bad side.
And people are starting to notice. Not us heathens mind you, 'cause what we think don't count: but Imams, and not just any Iman, but al Qaida's Imam
One of Al Qaeda's senior theologians is calling on his followers to end their military jihad and saying the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a "catastrophe for all Muslims."
In a serialized manifesto written from prison in Egypt, Sayyed Imam al-Sharif is blasting Osama bin Laden for deceiving the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and for insulting the Prophet Muhammad by comparing the September 11 attacks to the early raids of the Ansar warriors. The lapsed jihadist even calls for the formation of a special Islamic court to try Osama bin Laden and his old comrade Ayman al-Zawahri.
The disclosures from Mr. Sharif, also known as Dr. Fadl and Abd al-Qadir ibn Abd al-Aziz, have already opened a rift at the highest levels of Al Qaeda. The group's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, a former associate of the defecting theologian in Egypt, personally mocked him last month in a video, remarking that he was unaware Egyptian prisons had fax machines. Meanwhile, leading Western analysts are saying the defection of Mr. Sharif indicates the beginning of the end for Al Qaeda.
The author of "Inside Al Qaeda," Rohan Gunaratna said in an interview this week, "There is nothing more important than a former jihadist as important as Dr. Fadl criticizing the jihadist vanguard." Mr. Gunaratna, who acts at times as a consultant for American and Western intelligence, described the reformed theologian as "both an ideologue and operational leader, but he was primarily an ideologue."
An expert on Islamic terrorism with the Jamestown Foundation, Steven Ulph, also said the defection of Mr. Sharif could hemorrhage support for Al Qaeda. "The important point to make, when you have the combination of a respected ideologue, plus someone who was in the field, say these things it is more important than having a Saudi sheik that moderates his message," he said.
Back in September, a fatwa was issued against Osam bin Laden and al Qaida, but this most recent condemnation is much more striking.
People have asked in the past, "So how do you defeat an ideological movement?" The question and has always been obvious: make it clear to everyone that the foundation of the ideology are flawed.
In this case, the way to do that was to defeat the Islamists on the field of battle.
Because ultimately, this is how they are keeping score.
The Battles in Afghanistan, and especially Iraq have done that, make no mistake.
