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Current Events » in reply to Again - Is Iraq NOW a haven for al-Qaida - since Bush.

Part of your problem
Tom Brosz — (archived)

Your argument technique, like that of many others, is to slide a premise across the table and hope nobody notices. Your main problem with this technique is that you tend to try to shove about five of them across at once, and hope nobody notices.

Step one would be to look up the term "haven," and see if it accommodates a situation where the people in the "haven" are being killed and captured in droves, and are constantly on the move to avoid Iraqi civilian enemies, never mind the U.S. and Iraqi military.

Just as an aside: If you were following the WWII battles in North Africa, and learned Rommel had been killed, and that his position was currently being held by the guy who used to drive him around in his car, what would you think about the German military situation? This has happened with al Qaeda.

Now, Afghanistan was a "haven," where al Qaeda members could stroll down the streets unafraid, live in nice houses, build open training bases, and where the government was on their side. There are still a few places like this, but most are in Africa.

Iraq is a battlefield. It is no more a "haven" for al Qaeda than Guadalcanal was a "haven" for the Japanese just because there wasn't a Japanese presence there before WWII.

I'm sorry that you perceive taking this argument above a single tier of abstraction is seen by you as "obfuscation," but that's not really my fault.

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