When I read this article yesterday, I expected this same item to be all over the internet and blogosphere by this morning. George Friedman, head of Stratfor, claims that the war in Iraq has been a major success in the war against al Qaeda. Friedman claims that the motivation for the war was NOT to depose a dictator or bring democracy to the Middle East, but to convince a reluctant Saudi Arabia to crack down on al Qaeda.
Friedman claims that the war has succeeded in that primary aim and that Saudi Arabia has cracked down. However, the Bush administration has created a mess in Iraq by not committing enough troops to secure the borders and not anticipating a guerrilla war.
I can't really evaluate Friedman or Stratfor, although I have seen their name referenced quite a bit, as in this mention in the Daily Times from Pakistan.
Friedman is, of course, peddling his book, which is due for release this week. Still, there's no doubt that Saudi Arabia has adopted a very open campaign against al Qaeda and their allies this past year. What the cause for that change of heart might be is open to conjecture, but I do believe that the Saudis were made to realize that the pain al Qaeda might inflict on them was as nothing compared with the pain the United States could inflict.
