Maybe Nancy Pelosi is secretly a member of al-Qaeda?

Vice-president Dick Cheney has been claiming this past week that Nancy Pelosi's position on the Iraq war benefits al-Qaeda. He was referring to attempts by Pelosi and other House Democrats to register opposition to the recently announced troop surge. The opposition measures include a non-binding resolution (which passed the House on Feb 16), and increasing restrictions on funding for the war. But Cheney thinks that advocating for less troops or a withdrawal from Iraq is admitting defeat to al-Qaeda, by showing that their campaign of violence succeeded in scaring America away.

Unfortunately, the vice president's reasoning is misguided propaganda (what? Cheney engaging in misguiding propaganda? that's so.......typical). First off, I'm a little confused at the idea that drawing down troops from Iraq would mean a victory for al-Qaeda. Despite the publicity of false evidence to the contrary, al-Qaeda did not have operations in Iraq prior to the 2003 US invasion. Let me repeat that-Saddam Hussein was not working with al-Qaeda operatives, and al-Qaeda had a very small presence in Iraq under Saddam's authoritarian regime. Saddam was a Shi'ite heading a secular government, al-Qaeda is a Sunni Islamist organization. Those two things don't mix well, and with Saddam's tight grip on his nation, al-Qaeda wouldn't have found it easy to establish a presence undetected.

In fact, it has only been since the US invaded Iraq, deposed Saddam, and watched the country dissolve into chaos and civil war that al-Qaeda has managed to establish itself as one of the leading terrorists groups in the region. The real victory for al-Qaeda was when the US rushed to dethrone Saddam and created a war zone that is the perfect breeding and recruiting ground for terrorists. Leaving American troops in Iraq in order to make the point that al-Qaeda has not 'won' will only lead to more US and Iraqi deaths by leaving the troops in a place where they make an easy and obvious target for insurgents and terrorists.

I also don't know how passing a non-binding resolution in the US House will somehow 'embolden' al-Qaeda. I just can't really picture a bunch of young Arab men with AK-47's huddled around the TV watching al-Jazeera and then giving each other big high fives when they hear that the House of Representatives doesn't think the US should send more troops. Heck, I think hearing that America is increasing troop populations would be more of an 'emboldener', spurring the insurgents to work even harder at recruiting and bombing and buying weapons. If your enemy starts building up their forces, you sure better respond by improving your own forces too. But hey, at least America is winning the moral victory here, by showing that even if a hundred thousand troops and Iraqi civilians have to die, nothing is going to scare us away from promoting peace in Iraq.