Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Really Important Interview With Former Ambassador to Iraq

At PBS, no less.  Crocker is a career diplomat, and he makes some important points about how the failure to negotiate the Status Of Forces Agreement opened the door for the current and future disaster.  One especially chilling part:
And the consequences are? How dangerous a situation is it?
This is analogous to Afghanistan, say, in August 2001. And this time, it is Al Qaeda version 6.0. They make bin Laden’s 2011 Al Qaeda look like Boy Scouts.
They are far stronger; they are far more numerous. They have thousands who hold foreign passports and require no visas to get into the United States or other Western countries.
They are well funded, they are battle-hardened, and they are well armed. And they now control far more territory exclusively than bin Laden ever did. They have the security; they have the safety to plan their next set of operations; and they are a messianic movement.
Believe me, they are planning those operations. That’s why the Saudis moved 30,000 troops up to their border. They know that ISIS wants Mecca and Medina.
They also want to come after us. And I can tell you, as we sit here today in Washington, they’re sitting in Mosul figuring out how they’re going to get at us next.

2 comments:

  1. Depending on the spatial distribution of ISIS/ISIL personnel, using a couple of nukes might be useful.

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  2. Yep - this is really dangerous.

    Now, with all these different groups (most notably ISIS and Al Qaeda), there is inevitable strong competition for recruits, donations and general mind-share. This provides a strong incentive for each group to stage a dramatic attack in the West - nothing drives recruiting and funding like visible success.

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