Submitted by Scott Baker, Sep 14, 2007 11:26

I predict history will look back upon the murder of Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi as the time when the arab world finally began to realize that Al-Qaida does not represent a "third way" (or a fourth, or fifth...), but is instead what the rest of the world sees them to be - a loosely aligned gang of violent thugs who will stop at nothing in their efforts to plunge their fellow arabs into an economic and political wastewater even worse than 7th century Islam (at least then, people were looking forward, not backward). Al-Qaida has always been primarilly an arab problem; 9/11 scale masacres happen cumulatively on an almost weekly basis in the arab world. We need to get out of the way in Iraq and let the arabs handle these jihadists themselves, as some sunnis were apparently already starting to do under Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi. Most likely, Iraq is headed toward a Yugoslovia style breakapart, and we need to keep an eye on groups that are a direct threat to us and take them out - as we did in Afghanistan with the Taliban and Al-Qaida originally, before we lost our way in Iraq. Iraq is not, and never was, a threat to us or our interests. We actually got more oil out of that region with Hussain in charge than we do now, and a lot less cost in dollars and American lives. I'll leave the question of whether we should continue to be so dependent on that region of the world for our energy needs for another time. But, as F.D.R. said, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." I'm afraid that "fear itself" has taken over the national agenda.

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