Osama again displays his media savvy, appealing to the appeasement-minded Left, hitting all their hot buttons about how Iraq has become a jihad center because of the American presence there (which is of course true to a great extent, but irrelevant in light of the fact that the jihad ideology so manifestly exists elsewhere, all over the globe, where American troops are not present) and invoking public opinion polls. From The Guardian, with thanks to JE:
My message to you is about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and how it can be ended. I did not intend to speak to you about this, because we already know how this war should end …
But I spoke to you because your president is continuously misinterpreting public opinion polls which show that the vast majority of you support the withdrawal of your forces from Iraq. But he disagreed with this desire and said the withdrawal of troops will give the wrong message to the enemy, and that it is better to fight them on their ground than on our ground.
And in answer to these interpretations I say that the war in Iraq is raging and the operations in Afghanistan are increasing and in our favour, thank God, and Pentagon numbers show a rising in the number of your deaths and injuries …
Reality shows that the war against the US and its allies is not just restricted to Iraq as he claims, but Iraq has become a gravitational point and a recruiting ground for qualified [mujahideen].
And from another point, the mujahideen have been able, with the will of God, to overcome all security measures that the forces have taken, and the result of this is what you have seen in the explosions in major European capitals …
And our delay on similar attacks in the US is not because we could not penetrate security measures. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are completed.
And based on the substance of the polls, which indicate Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stand by … a truce that offers security and stability and the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan that war has destroyed.
This is another instance in which ignorance of Islam hamstrings our response to the jihad. If policymakers in Washington knew under what circumstances a jihad warrior offers a truce, they would know that now is the time to increase the pressure, in all kinds of ways. But this is by no means the first time that this conflict has been misconceived at the highest levels.