The Critical Nexus

Pakistan is a critical nexus in the fight against the Islamists and al Qaeda. Al Qaeda and its backers in Pakistan, the Taliban, have used a truce with the Pakistani government to regroup and rearm in Warizistan and along the Afghan-Pakistani border. For all the headlines about how the US strategy against al Qaeda has failed, the real issue is that foreign countries continue to provide sanctuary for al Qaeda - safe havens from which they can operate.

Unless the US is going to start bombing these countries, and obtaining Democrat support for said bombing as they're cynically claiming that the strategy in Iraq is a failure because we've taken our eyes off the prize despite the fact that the US continues to kill and capture al Qaeda there, al Qaeda will remain a threat.

This is a global conflict by terrorist groups who will use failed states and lawless regions around the world to recruit, train, plan, and coordinate terrorist attacks.

Pakistan's Musharraf has come to the realization that appeasement simply does not work, and the Lal Masjid siege proved that allowing the Islamists a foothold will threaten his very government and ability to lead. His response, including calling for the elimination of the Islamists in Pakistan has been met with the typical response from the Islamists - suicide bombings and attacks on troops massing to go into Warizistan.

Bill Roggio has more on yesterday's suicide bombing at an event where the former Chief Justice of Pakistan was scheduled to speak. Even as the Pakistanis claim to take a hard line, Musharraf's government is still holding out hope that negotiations might work. The Islamists will see such steps as nothing more than a sign of weakness to be exploited, just as they did leading up to Lal Masjid. They'll continue to spread their ideology through Pakistan and provide sanctuary to al Qaeda. If that happens, nothing short of a US assault on Pakistan would be sufficient to dislodge al Qaeda, and given the way Congressional Democrats have been behaving, I doubt that they'd authorize funding for a prolonged operation against that region.

At this point, all the US can do is cajole and urge Musharraf to take action against Warizistan and the Islamists there, but Musharraf is operating according to what he sees as most likely to keep him in power.

The fact is that where US forces are currently operating, including Iraq and Afghanistan continue to crawl with al Qaeda. US forces in Iraq captured a major al Qaeda figure earlier this month, who happened to be a conduit for operations in Iraq and al Qaeda leaders elsewhere not to mention the senior al Qaeda terrorist in Iraq. Captain Ed, Pajamas Media, and Hot Air hav more. Considering that Congressional Democrats repeatedly call for US withdrawal from Iraq, this is a most incongruous situation. Ceding the battlefield to al Qaeda would be a disaster of epic proportions, even greater than the claimed strategic failure to deal with Warizistan. Instapundit calls the latest Democrat efforts in Congress feckless. I concur.

Just yesterday, more al Qaeda were captured, who were involved in spreading al Qaeda propaganda through Iraq. And if you simply read through the MNF-I press release page, you'd see incident after incident detailing engagements with al Qaeda.

Don Surber notes that the Congressional Democrats are trying to surrender even as we're winning. He points out that even AP is reporting that the Surge is working. Jules Crittenden thinks this may blowback against Congressional Democrats.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin live blogged the clown circus at the Senate last night. I could think of better things to do with my time at night. Sleep being one. That Senate stunt accomplished nothing for Senate Democrats, and their so-called all-nighter showed just how out of touch they were with what is going on around the world. We've got troops overseas who regularly pull all nighters so that they can get the bead on al Qaeda, insurgents, and to gather intel on our enemies. These Senate buffoons can't even manage to go all night without caving.

Here's more details on the al Qaeda capture:

Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also known as Abu Shahid, was captured in Mosul on July 4, said Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a military spokesman.

"Al-Mashhadani is believed to be the most senior Iraqi in the al-Qaida in Iraq network," Bergner said. He said al-Mashhadani was a close associate of Abu Ayub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Bergner said al-Mashhadani served as an intermediary between al-Masri and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.

"In fact, communication between the senior al-Qaida leadership and al- Masri frequently went through al-Mashhadani," Bergner said.

"Along with al-Masri, al-Mashhadani co-founded a virtual organization in cyberspace called the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006," Bergner said. "The Islamic State of Iraq is the latest efforts by al-Qaida to market itself and its goal of imposing a Taliban-like state on the Iraqi people."

In Web postings, the Islamic State of Iraq has identified its leader as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, with al-Masri as minister of war. There are no known photos of al-Baghdadi.

Bergner said al-Mashhadani had told interrogators that al-Baghdadi is a "fictional role" created by al-Masri and that an actor is used for audio recordings of speeches posted on the Web.

Others blogging: Stop the ACLU, Sister Toldjah, Point Five provides a dose of humor, Bill's Bites, Gateway Pundit,