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Al-Qaida Establishes "Islamic Republic of Qaim" in Iraq

Ross Kaminsky - 9/7/2005

According to Pravda and the Washington Post, Al Qaeda and/or radical muslim insurgents have taken control over the Iraqi town of Qaim, near the Syrian border. While the world focuses on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and the talking heads wonder aloud about the political damage done to President Bush (as well as local leaders in Louisiana) by Katrina and burst levees, a major story is developing in Iraq - one which the President should be nearly as concerned with, and one which may cause him serious trouble well after the situation on the Gulf Coast has moderated.

I say "nearly as concerned with" because the importance of the disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi is so large that it defies belief, and it hits tens of thousands of Americans directly. It is clearly the most important situation for the President to deal with today. Yet were domestic current events any less significant, I would expect this Iraq story to be a major headline, with major import.

Qaim, about 225 miles west-northwest of Baghdad, made a name for itself among those paying close attention to the WMD situation as Iraq's primary producer of uranium yellow cake before the first Gulf War, during which the factory was destroyed.

Lately, the Qaim area has seen some of the most intense fighting between US forces and insurgents, partly due to the local residents' apparent dislike of Americans or at least the presence of our forces and partly due to easy insurgent access from Syria.

As recently as a couple of months ago, the Marines were using some territory near Qaim as a base from which to attack insurgents. Yet, today it appears the Marines have lost that foothold in what could prove to be more than simply a minor embarrassment. If these reports are true, they represent a small but significant defeat for the US - much less significant in its current military impact than in the ripples it creates through our military, our public, and our enemies.

One has to take Pravda with many large grains of salt, but given the apparent corroboration by the Washington Post, their description of the situation sounds about as bad as it could for the American military, at least for something relatively small:

"Public executions of policemen, local authorities and everyone who is suspected of collaboration with occupation forces began in the city. Militants replaced the existing court with Shariat's law and declared the formation of the Islamic Republic. "Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Qaim", the poster at the city entry reads. The majority of the militants are mercenaries from various Moslem countries, although some of them are Iraqis. They have the whole city under their control. They patrol it and build barricades."

If the nation were not so distracted, the President would be under serious pressure from this story. This sort of news is terrible for domestic support of the war as well as for military morale. It must also boost morale and recruiting for Al Qaeda, Zarqawi and their terrorist brethren. Few things motivate the enemy as much as any display of American weakness.

No matter how much the military or government spokesmen try to play down the scale of Qaim, and it is not large, the fact that the insurgents could control any town large enough to show up on a map is very bad news.