It would be great if I was entirely wrong about the Middle East, Islamic Fundamentalism, the threat of radical governments the world over and the serious jeopardy the world is put into by the European style appeasement that has been shown Muslim offenders of late – but unfortunately I’ve got a remarkable track record of being right.  I was a staunch advocate that the 2006 plan of slowly removing the American presence from Iraq was going to result in a massive increase in violence over the course of the year, I stuck to my guns on the idea that the Iraqi government and by extension the American forces were showing too much leniency in the opening days of the insurgency, I pointed out that martial law was imperative in Baghdad to keep it under control.  Off the topic of the Middle East specifically, I made my voice known when I worried that anti-Semitism and pro-Nazi style behavior was going to return (albeit not so quickly).  I suggested that killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would require a fundamental strategic shift by the insurgency and would very likely fragment it.

On each of these notes I’ve been right – when American forces left the fighting to the Iraqis they turned on each other because the absence of a strong tyrannical government allowed old vendettas to roll out into the streets – and now it’s turned to the point that we needed the Baghdad Security Plan.  As I said from the moment I heard about the insurgency we needed to clamp down with security, barring crowds of people from walking around Baghdad with the potential to be armed and a curfew would be necessary.  This wasn’t done and violence exploded as a result and where did the guerrillas run to?  The crowds of people in the street of course.  It wasn’t until it was all but too late did Nouri al-Maliki finally start imposing the security measures I’d advocated since day one.

On the topic of the Holocaust, pro-Nazism, and anti-Semitism, the United States is constantly being pressured by internal persons to abandon their ally in Israel (the bevy of Uncle Choms – or those Jews who adhere to the Noam Chomsky line of thought – for example) which helped lead to Israel’s defeat in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War and Holocaust Denial is on the rise?  So much so that British schools, at the behest of mosques who teach that it never occurred or in smaller numbers, are dropping the topic altogether in school.

What happened when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi died?  There is something of a misrepresentation in the Media by this (but does this really surprise anyone?).  Yes, there is still violence in the wake of his death – a crude and disorderly violence that could be swept up if America did not cowtell to al-Maliki’s loyalty to  his Shi’ite Militias.  Under Zarqawi the various organizations were brutally kept under his sway and thumb.  To a certain degree the brutality he showed the relatively secular Iraqis (or rather, a race of people accustomed to a secular government and not strict Sharia Law) was able to be overlooked by the insurgents because he was both able to get things done and absolutely refused to see disunity amongst his ranks.  With his death the province of Anbar – considered the Wild West of Iraq and the hotbed of insurgency – has largely come under control, giving rise to the Anbar Salvation Council.  Diyala is under increasing pressure and shows signs of improving (the liberation of Baqouba speaking well in this regard) while the umbrella factions that made up the Iraqi Insurgency have splintered.

The 1920s Revolutionary Brigade has thrown in its lot with the Americans and Coalition along with dozens of other smaller groups that find the strict Sharia style imposed by Ayman al-Zawahiri’s new puppet to be distasteful.  Without the cold, iron grip of Zarqawi a desperate grab for power was necessary – a grab for power that came to be known as the consolidation of the Islamic State of Iraq.  Most times when someone hears this name in discussion they will usually turn to me angrily and declare “Iraq was secular, not an Islamic State,” – which is a clear display of their ignorance of current events on the ground.  It’s always fun to toss this around just to figure out on which level of discussion you really are with the person opposite you.

In these cases – my gut has long been right about these things, primarily because I imagine my gut bases its own opinions on what I’ve studied and know.  And while it would be a pleasant fiction to think that people like Ron Paul are right and al-Qaeda is the central and only threat to the United States none of the signs of the world agree with that.  It’s akin to saying “Well only Japan is a threat” in 1941 – ignoring Germany, Austria, and Italy – only in this case, it’s an entire region that spills out anti-Western hatred with promises of American destruction.  The pleasant fiction is just that – a pleasant fiction.