The Islamic State of Iraq

How many times have you heard Democrats say that Iraq is a distraction from the War on Terror?

That's been their mantra -- We're bogged down in a civil war in Iraq. We don't belong there. We should be going after al Qaeda terrorists.

Russ Feingold says it all the time.

In December 2005, Feingold blogged:

I opposed the Iraq war from the start because it was a distraction from what should be our top priority - fighting the terrorist networks that threaten us.

Speaking to Lindsay Graham on CNN, Barbara Boxer said:

“Lindsey, just be careful what you say. The bottom line here is that the losers are the ones who have engineered this war, made a huge mistake — Dick Cheney we’re in the last throes, the war will last six months — and all of you who have supported this escalation and have turned us away from fighting al Qaeda into putting us in the middle of a civil war.”

And it's not just Dems. Republicans say it, too.

Many of the Republican presidential candidates are quick to blame President Bush and his administration for missteps in Iraq and their impact on the War on Terror.

They say that we shouldn't be fighting in Iraq because the enemy isn't there.

If that's the case, I'd like them to explain al Qaeda's claim that they captured American troops in Iraq and are holding them hostage.

BAGHDAD -- An al-Qaida front group announced Sunday it had captured American soldiers in a deadly attack the day before, as thousands of U.S. troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.

The statement came on one of the deadliest days in the country in recent weeks, with at least 124 people killed or found dead. A suicide truck bomb tore through the offices of a Kurdish political party in northern Iraq, killing 50 people, and a car bombing in a crowded Baghdad market killed another 17.

Troops surrounded the town of Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said. The soldiers marked each searched house with a white piece of cloth.

Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing "searched" on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.

The Islamic State in Iraq offered no proof for its claim that it was behind the attack Saturday in Mahmoudiya that also killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator. But the Sunni area known as the "triangle of death" is a longtime al-Qaida stronghold.

If the claim proves true, it would mark one of the most brazen attacks by the umbrella Sunni insurgent group against U.S. forces here.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for the U.S. military, said 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft and intelligence units were scouring the farming area as the military made "every effort available to find our missing soldiers."

Read more about the "Islamic State of Iraq" here.

The New York Times reports:

The Islamic State of Iraq posted its claims of responsibility on jihadist Web sites on Sunday. “Clashes between your brothers in the Islamic State of Iraq and a Crusaders’ patrol in Mahmudiya, southern Baghdad province, has led to the killing and arresting of several of them,” the message said.

If history is any measure, the chances of the Americans surviving capture would be slim. The organization has claimed responsibility for numerous killings of prisoners.

Last June, insurgents captured two American soldiers during a surprise attack near Yusufiya. After a four-day search by 8,000 American and Iraqi troops, the soldiers’ bodies were found about three miles from the site of their kidnapping. They had been tortured, and insurgents had booby-trapped the road leading to the bodies.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella insurgent group that was a precursor to the Islamic State of Iraq and included Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed responsibility for those killings.

Al Qaeda is in Iraq, and actively seeking to harm our military personnel.

If this incident proves anything, it's that the War on Terror is being fought in Iraq.

While we face a number of difficult challenges in Iraq, it's flat out false to say that al Qaeda isn't among them.

It's idiotic to say that Iraq is nothing more than a distraction and not part of the War on Terror.