More Bad News For Al Qaeda and Other Syrian Matters

While Americans were fussing with Hurricane Irene, Al Qaeda's number 2, the Libyan, who was its operational planner, was killed by a drone attack in Pakistan. Atiyah Abd al-Rahman was considered the new generation of Al Qaeda leaders, who could sustain the organization. When the Seals assassinated bin Laden they found a treasure trove of digital materials in bin Laden's lair, which showed that it was Rahman who had been in most frequent contact with the leader.

Leon Panetta said weeks ago that a few more "lucky" strikes and the United States could 'defeat" Al Qaeda. Under President Obama, bin Laden, Rahman, Al Qaeda's Financial Chief al-Yazid, the chief of Al Qaeda in Iraq al-Masri and their spiritual leader Omar al-Baghdadi have been eliminated. Again proving that President Obama is weak on terrorism.

The revolt in Yemen has intensified with more demands for the regime to step down. But this has camouflaged the activities of the Yemeni forces in taking the fight to Al Qaeda. If anything the war against Al Qaeda in Yemen has escalated in the last month.

Washington pundits have asked why we can't pull another Libya in Syria. The Syrian regime has killed several thousand people over the last few weeks and the United Nations have started investigating the deaths. Two days ago Syrian troops actually attacked the Grand Mosque in Damascus and even wounded the 80-year old Imam, who was simply conducting services. While President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have demanded Assad step down and the Arab League has demanded the Syrian regime stop filling its own citizens, both Russia and China have vowed to veto any Security Council action.

President Obama had been criticized for the lateness of his actions but the Turkish government had requested Washington to hold off until their foreign minister had spoken to Assad. Clearly, the Turkish talks didn't work. The EU and the United States have invoked economic sanctions on key Syrian leaders and also the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which is assisting the Syrian crackdown. Iran has stepped up its financial assistance to the regime and Tehran pressured Iraq's al-Maliki to pony up $5 billion to shore up the Syrian regime, a move that was highly unpopular in Iraq.

Save the Date--September 6. Moqtada al-Sadr or the Mookie has called on Iraqis to take to the streets in millions to protest the al-Maliki regime. The Mookie had given his provisional approval of the regime in January but Iraqis have conducted periodic protests over the failure of the Maliki regime to provide even minimal services such as electricity to the population. The Prime Minister had asked for at least 100 days until the situation was resolved but the time has been up for a while.

Dick Cheney in his new memoirs said that "the Iraq war was George W. Bush's greatest achievement." I guess it led to the Iraqi Fall of this year.