by C. M. Weston

Created on: August 22, 2007

Al Qaeda has definitely not been defeated or destroyed. Its top leaders remain beyond the reach of the US. It has morphed into a loose affiliation of groups, enabling far flung operatives to act independently. As a result, American-led operations against al Qaeda have had only limited and temporary success at dismantling the terrorist organization. Only lower and mid-level terrorist leaders have been captured or

killed. Attempts to disrupt al-Qaeda financing and supply lines have not hampered its ability to be a credible opponent on a broad scale in Iraq and around the world.

Despite the 9-11 terrorist action, America was unable to prevent or capture the anthrax terrorists in the US or various large terrorist attacks in Europe and Asia. Al Qaeda is by no means spent or out of contention. In fact, they have been able to cause major terrorist attacks in numerous countries, despite enormous resources having been spent to contain and thwart the terrorists. Ironically, the area of greatest success of al Qaeda has been in Iraq, where the US invaded partly due to false claims of a connection between Sadam and al Qaeda's 9-11 attack on America.

Al Qaeda operatives in Sunni dominant areas of Iraq have engaged in terrorism and intentional targeting of Shia civilians in order to provoke internecine hostilities. Their intent is to foment civil war and internal Iraqi strife. They practice a form of ethnic cleansing, by attacking the majority Shia. Ultimately, they want to create a fundamentalist Sunni-dominated regime in Iraq or at least the Sunni-controlled areas. For al Qaeda, the more violence, the closer to their objective of Iraqi turmoil, defeat of the coalition and consolidation of permanent safe haven areas.

Al Qaeda wants to humiliate America and and kill as many American and coalition forces as possible. The fact that the number of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq continues to accelerate shows that directly and indirectly, al Qaeda is accomplishing this objective over time. They have shown that they have staying power as well as flexibility in bringing certain Sunni areas under their control. Already, the UK has announced its withdraw from Iraq this Autumn and most of Americans favor something similar, with US presidential elections 15 months away. Al Qaeda tastes victory, because of Bush's refusal to bring the Arab world into resolving the Iraq War.

George Bush's republican party and his neocon allies are facing an angry populace and it is highly unlikely that

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