It Is More than WMDs

I found a link to an interesting story about the current war in Iraq over at Crossing the Rubicon2.

It is titled WMDs camouflage real reasons behind Iraq invasion and it provides some good food for thought.

It is really about a book by George Friedman in which he discusses America's Secret War against AQ and answers some of the questions about why the US did not go after Saudi Arabia for their role in supporting AQ.

"From this fortress headquarters, Friedman writes, al-Qa'ida ("the Base" in English) pressed its grand design for an Islamist world federation, a new Caliphate, which would ultimately match, if not dominate, other superpowers. Global terrorism would be the means. Al-Qa'ida's opening moves - attacks on American embassies and other establishments abroad - were aimed, in Friedman's opinion, less at damaging the US than provoking it to a reckless assault on Islam.

This, al-Qa'ida believed, would stir the "Islamic street" to a confrontational mood with the West and rebellion against non-fundamentalist Islamic regimes, establishing the foundations of the great federation. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, the US, confident of its hegemony, had concluded that "war was now optional", that no power existed that could force it into war."

Read the whole piece, it is worth some time.