Dear Terrorist

Yesterday, the Director of National Intelligence Released in full the letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. The letter has a number of highlights - too many to list here. I encourage you to read it for youself and see what a terrorist sounds like who is losing. Also, let's not be mistaken on what the terrorist's goals are:

The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq.

The second stage: Establish an Islamic authority or amirate...

The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq.

It seems as if Al Qaida's goals are quite similar to anti-war demonstrators and a fair portion of liberals. Interesting...

My answer is, firstly: Things may develop faster than we imagine. The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam-and how they ran and left their agents-is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us...

Another interesting point. I wonder why Bush is so hesitant to put down a timeline for withdrawl for Iraq? Also, how interesting is it that the terrorists are counting on Iraq becoming a new Vietnam. If you watch the news you'd be hard-pressed to not believe that has already happened.

However, despite all of this, I say to you: that we are in a battle, and that more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media.

How true. Indeed, half of the war is then being lost every day the media fails to report the good news that is happening constantly in Iraq. Do you really want to know what is going on with our soldiers? Ask one, if you can - or watch the History channel. Even FoxNews only reports on soldiers when they die.

Other parts of the letter worth noting are al-Zawahiri's pleas to stop killing shiites, and to stop beheading prisoners. Both of these actions cause popular support to be lost for their murderous cause in the eyes of fellow Muslims.

If you want a larger (and better) analysis, see here.

If you want to see the mainstream media's (flawed) analysis, see here and here.