Will They Be Dancing in the Street?

Representative Steve King said that if Barack Hussein Obama is elected, al Qaeda will be dancing in the street. Arianna Huffington is having a fit over this. Who is right?

King is basing his statement on two things. The first is that Obama has promised to start withdrawing troops from Iraq immediately. Various al Qaeda leaders have said that Iraq is their current battleground. They brought in foreign fighters under the franchise of al Qaeda in Iraq. If they are still there in January, 2008 then they win by virtue of being the last ones on the field.

Last week Obama said that he would halt or reverse troop withdrawals if there was any signs of al Qaeda entering the country. When McCain pointed out that they are already there, Obama declined to clarify his intentions. Instead he pointed out that they had not been there five years ago when the invasion started. So, will Obama withdraw the troops or will he leave them in Iraq to fight al Qaeda? I'm betting that he will withdraw the troops and blame the loss of Iraq on Bush.

A good reason for al Qaeda to celebrate.

King also mentioned Obama's middle name which is Arabic for hansom and a common name among Muslims. King is not reminding people that Obama was born and raised a Muslim. The name has real meaning among Muslims. His grandfather took it when he converted. Mainstream news organizations have quoted people in the Muslim "street" as saying that it is important to them.

Arianna says this:

So our enemies will see that Obama's middle name is Hussein and... what exactly? Hate us even more? See it as a green light for a new wave of attacks? Not only are King's ravings offensive -- they are head-scratchingly moronic.

Obviously our enemies will not hate us more but they will see it as another sign that they are winning. They will see that America's reaction to the war on terror is to elect a Muslin-friendly president. While this might endear us to the Muslim street, it will also encourage al Qaeda. How can it not? How often does someone say, "Our tactics are working, our enemy is retreating, let's change tactics"?

Huffington and others really wants to pretend that there is no war and that the only reason anyone ever attacked us was because of President Bush. Anyone who reminds us that our country does have merciless and implacable enemies is guilty of scare-mongering.

Huffington and Obama also want to believe that the reason for starting the war, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, invalidates any reason for staying. McCain has pointed out that regardless of why we got into Iraq, we are now there and we are fighting al Qaeda there.

The election will probably end up being a referendum on the war - not on how it started but on who should win it. Obama and Huffington are on al Qaeda's side in this.