Zawahiri Backs Bush

Bush and al-Qaeda sitting in the tree:

“This bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap,” al-Zawahri said, according to a transcript released by the monitoring group SITE. The bill is evidence of American “failure and frustration,” he added.

“We ask Allah that they (U.S. troops) only get out of it after losing 200,000 to 300,000 killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson,” he said.

For the sake of intellectual honesty and consistency, let's note that one can conclude nothing whatsoever from the mere fact that Zawahiri is saying this. Mass murderers are also known to lie and even to make analytical errors. That Zawahiri says he wants us to stay is not, as such, a reason to leave any more than Zawahiri saying the reverse would be a reason to stay. Nevertheless, the reality is that Zawahiri's stated analysis makes sense. The US troop presence in Iraq is enormously costly to the United States in a whole bunch of ways, and it's a "good issue" for al-Qaeda; one that presents a fundamentally favorable context in which for al-Qaeda to attack Americans.