Dean's World

When the Soviet Union withdrew from from Afghanistan, do you know what a boatload of average Muslims thought?

"The mujahideen defeated the world's second greatest superpower."

I expressly recall hearing about the rise of the Taliban. Politically astute Pakistani guys like my dad knew about them far sooner than American media. He told me that the Taliban's claim to fame was defeating the Soviets. Once a Muslim milita is able to say they defeated someone; their name is made.

When — it is only a matter of time — we withdraw from Iraq, the Sunnis of the world are going to say "the mujahideen defeated the world's greatest superpower." The Shi'a will say that they drove out the Americans, but only the Shi'a will hear that.

My point: in the Sunni world, it will be Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda who will get the credit for our withdrawal.

That is not good.

This empowerement of OBL and Al-Qaeda is this administration's greatest — and any American leader ever's most horrifying — failure. Shame on Bush, Cheney, Rummy. They got tricked by a scheming liar like Chalabi who told them about the street festivals and confetti in their honor. They got lied to by AEI, which only means they lied to themselves. NYTimes helped by talking about "defectors" (who all lied as well). Unlike 1991, there wasn't an alternative government ready for us to prop. There was no democratic discourse. Clinton's sanctions of Iraq, along with Saddam's sons, which killed between 100,000 and 500,000 made sure there was nothing but silent people when we arrived. Bad planning. Lying. No strategy. Nothing.

What now? Inevitable is on its way. If not in October, we pull out in 2008. Do you know why? Because a majority of Americans have accepted that we have lost. Dean's World can be the last bastion of hopeful idealists. Hope without work, though, is fruitless.

Someone needs to get to work diplomatically and convincing the Syrian PEOPLE, the Iranian PEOPLE, the Turkish PEOPLE, the Kuwaiti PEOPLE, the Saudi PEOPLE, that a partial Al-Qaeda state in Iraq, which can boast "defeating the greatest superpower" is the most horrifying thing in the world. Talking to the leaders of these nations doesn't do jack. Why? Because the PEOPLE always do the opposite of what a tyrant wants. I've lived under two dictatorships and my father six.

We have to get to the PEOPLE and make them hate al-Qaeda.

So stop b*tching that I'm un-American, that the left is wrong to withdraw, that Islam is the problem, that the anti-war people are cowards, etc. Each of those discussions are irrelevant.

There's too much intellectual self-pleasuring going on here about who was right, who wrong, about hoping for the best.

Stop hoping. We have to make a future for ourselves.

I didn't make Eteraz.Org just for American Muslims to talk among themselves. I made it so that we Americans — all of us — can talk to Muslims all over the world. We Americans have to accept their humanity, and show them ours. al-Qaeda is doing a very good job in showing them we have none. THAT is the narrative we have to counter. Not find ways to further mock them as the Islamophobes want to do; not conclude that they aren't capable of humanity as the Islamophobes want to do; not tell them that, hey don't you know, Islam is a religion of violence as the Islamophobes do.

Eteraz.Org is not a Muslimm site. It is an American site. My first commitment is to the security and safety of this nation. That is where you should be as well. The surge will end. When we leave, we will not be hailed. We'll be called losers. Then we — you and me — will have to show our face to millions of Muslims around the world who will call us "losers." What will we say? Give them the bird?