Jed Babbin over on NRO has confirmed a contention of Tom Holsinger's in an e-mail that Jeff blogged the other day. Namely that Al-Qaeda and the larger terrorist network are cooperating with Saddam and are fighting with him in Iraq.
Babbin says this:
The "Saddam fedayeen" are, in part, a fiction. Yes, there are mostly thugs recruited from Iraq's prisons, given a gun and a uniform and turned loose to terrorize the populace. But among them, and also operating independently, there are hundreds of others who are not Iraqi.
And this:
In preparation for this war, while we diddled with the U.N. for the past five months, Saddam has been welcoming terrorists in by the truckload. And now, it is they who are fighting, and preventing regular Iraqi units from surrendering. They are also at the heart of the atrocities we are seeing, and will continue to see. Especially the civilian deaths that the Iraqis are trying to lay at our door.We have been letting civilian vehicles in and out of Basra, giving the civilians there freedom of movement they have been denied. But among them are many of the terrorists. One reason the Brits have had such a hard time securing the city is that these people want to ensure that a free Iraqi government doesn't come in there, plant its flag, and proclaim a new Iraq.
The terrorists--and those who back them--will do anything to prevent freedom from taking hold there. Instead of a democratic Iraq modeled after America, they want a theocratic Iraq on the model of Iran. And they are prepared to die to get one. Worse, they are prepared to kill--and force us to kill--thousands of innocents to prevent us from doing what we came to do. This means that the conflict can go on long after Saddam is gone.
Go here and read the whole thing.
N.B. Hat tip to LGF. Additional background on this subject can also be found at Your Word, who has done some very good research.
Of course, I can't help but take this opportunity for blatant self-promotion by directing people here, where I've been keeping tabs on articles linking Hussein to support of terrorism. I'm also working on another roundup of links to be posted soon, so if anyone wants to send articles my way, I welcome them. :)
I guess we can add one more unargued benefit of the war on Saddam: we managed to flush al Qaeda and their fellow travelers out of the woodwork, into an open field, where we can play. It still won't be pretty, but it's a lot easier than trying to find them in cities around the world.
It will get worse.
I said in my December column that Al Qaeda will use Iraqi chemical weapons in Baghdad.
"... Worse, Al Qaeda might obtain Iraqi WMD, either at Saddam's orders or by seizing depots whose guards have run away, and use those on American forces AND on Iraqi civilians. Al Qaeda took a major political hit from the rejoicing of Afghanistan's people upon liberation by American forces, knows the same will happen in Iraq and is aware that America plans to make Iraq a showcase for Arab democracy. Murdering thousands of Iraqis - perhaps a million in worst case anthrax and smallpox scenarios - and contaminating large urban areas would inhibit these American goals.
American forces and equipment in the area would also face a lengthy decontamination process in the event of widespread WMD use by Al Qaeda or (far less likely) Saddam's few real diehards. The Bush Administration's reluctance to deploy really large American forces to the area might be due to fear of this ..."
Tom,
You have a link to that article?