The Myth of al Qaeda in Iraq
[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_09_11_tilghman.mp3]
Former Stars and Stripes reporter Andrew Tilghman discusses “al Qaeda in Iraq,” the different players’ motives for playing up their influence, the new redirection toward the Sunnis, and the Samara mosque bombings.
MP3 here. (36:06)
Andrew Tilghman was an Iraq correspondent for the Stars and Stripes newspaper in 2005 and 2006.
Author: Scott Horton
Scott Horton is editorial director of Antiwar.com, director of the Libertarian Institute, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from ScottHorton.org. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan and editor of The Great Ron Paul: The Scott Horton Show Interviews 2004–2019. He’s conducted more than 5,000 interviews since 2003. Scott lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, investigative reporter Larisa Alexandrovna Horton. He is a fan of, but no relation to the lawyer from Harper’s.
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Tilghman either doesn’t get it, or doesn’t want to own up, that the divisiveness, horrible fighting among themselves in Iraq going on is just what our war criminal president wants, and that is why designated King George wants our troops to stay and stay and stay, al Qaeda be damned. Yeah, those two words, al Qaeda, are Cheney and his boy’s selling point. It appears that Tilghman also just doesn’t want to admit that General Petraeus is Bush’s proxy, and in my eyes not only a betrayer of the American people, but a war criminal as well. WE, THE U.S., IS THE ENEMY IN IRAQ. It is good to hear him describe that a newspaper’s beauracracy dictates/governs what topics and emphasis a reporter takes.
Marycatherine,
You meant, President Bush. The commander in chief. Who won two back to back elections. President Bush who legally won Florida, the democrats wanted to steal it by calling their voters in florida stupid because they couldn’t figure out how to cast a ballot. I believe they did several recounts by non-partisan agencies that had Pres. Bush winning by quite a bit. Since then, you liberals can’t get over it. The House and the Senate (Democrats and Republicans) voted unanimously to go to war in Iraq. I guess you forgot that too.
Maybe you forgot that Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization who hit us on 9/11? Were we in Afghanistan or Iraq then? You obviously have never served anything but your own fat ass happy meals, or you’d realize that this fight is about ideologies, about their desire to dominate the world with their religion.
Maybe you should take your fat ass over to the middle east and see how women are treated there.
I’d be surprised at any objectivity from a Stars & Stripes writer. The most believable intelligence has al Qaeda in Iraq as a sidecar, with the HQ (such as it is) in Waziristan, Pakistan. Besides, al Qaeda in Iraq has killed about 100 Shiite Iraqis for every American they have killed or wounded. It’s clear where their priorities lie.
The conflict between Sunni and Shi’a in Iraq __is__ resolvable, but not with 130,000 US combat forces in country. Whacking both sides is not much of a strategy, and it has served to escalate the ethnic fighting. As soon as the US has hit a Sunni neighborhood, Shia gangs go in and do more harm, and the same when the US attacks a Shi’a neighborhood–the Sunnis go in and take advantage.
The ethnic civil war in Southern Sudan has been resolved, but there were no foreign troops involved and no foreign military occupation. Our illustrious military is indeed the main problem in Iraq.
TO ALL ANTI WAR AND ANTI BUSH REGIME, TELL ANY NON BELIEVER TO GO TO THE WEB AND TYPE IN… PROJECT FOR A NEW AMERICAN CENTURY
THIS PLAN BY THE NEO CONS IS IN PLACE NOW! BE SURE TO TELL THEM TO TAKE NOTICE OF THE PEOPLE AT THE HEAD OF THIS CONSTRUCT FOR WORLD DOMINATION.
Great advise, Diane. Keep it simple for busy nonbelievers, if indeed they have inquiring minds. Thank you so much.
Diane,
I think you messed up that website, its Moveon.org
Diane is exactly right, PNAC needs to be exposed. Big time.
The main stream media needs to be telling Americans every day about the true threat of “Al Queda” in Iraq. What the White House asserts -that they are this huge threat is bogus. Just like Tilghman said, they only number about 850! We need 160,000 plus thousands of private mercenaries to fight 850?!
Oh, no. Now it’s we have to attack Iran because they are killing Americans in Iraq. Well, how about we leave Iraq -then we won’t be there to get killed? That would be too logical.
General McCaffrey’s thorough report back in March indicated a similar number of Al Queda: http://iraqsinconvenienttruth.com/Gen_McCaffrey_Report_032707_Iraq.pdf
He said:
…A handful of foreign fighters (500+)- and a couple of thousand Al Qaeda operatives incite open factional struggle through suicide bombings which target Shia holy places and innocent civilians.
…the armed insurgents, militias, and Al Qaeda in Iraq without fail apparently re-generate both leadership cadres and foot soldiers. Their sophistication, numbers, and lethality go up— not down— as they incur these staggering battle losses.
…the US Armed Forces are in a position of strategic peril. A disaster in Iraq will in all likelihood result in a widened regional struggle which will endanger America’s strategic interests (oil) in the Mid-east for a generation. We will also produce another generation of soldiers who lack confidence in their American politicians, the media, and their own senior military leadership.
I guess you all want to live in denial and refuse to believe that we can win this. I’m not saying we should have ever went, but democrats and republicans went hand in hand in this together, now they want to say Pres. Bush ‘tricked’ them. Wasn’t Clinton saying for the last 10 years how Saddam had weapons of mass destruction? I remember Sen. Clinton in 2002 saying how it was imperative for us to go in there and stop Saddam. How bout the chemical agents Saddam used on the Kurds? How about the 400,000 plus civilians Saddam killed during his reign? How about Osama Bin Laden saying that the Iraq front was the most important front they had to win?
I really hate all you liberal fags. I served over there twice, and you know what, unless you went and gave up a year of your life over there, then you should shut the f**k up. Gen. Patreaus has more integrity in his taint then all your commie hacks have put together. We are the greatest nation in the history of the planet, quit crying.