Rumsfeld warns of Islamic superstate if U.S. leaves Iraq too soon-

Rumsfeld warns of Islamic superstate if U.S. leaves Iraq too soon--Ummah.com Current Events: "Rumsfeld warns of Islamic superstate if U.S. leaves Iraq too soon


BY DREW BROWN

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - If U.S. forces leave too soon, Iraq will become a haven for terrorists and the base of a spreading Islamic superstate that would threaten the rest of the world, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday.

Speaking at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Rumsfeld warned that al-Qaida leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden would seize power in the wake of an American withdrawal and turn Iraq into the kind of terrorist safe haven that Afghanistan was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Moreover, Rumsfeld said: 'Iraq would serve as the base of a new Islamic caliphate to extend throughout the Middle East, and which would threaten legitimate governments in Europe, Africa and Asia. This is their plan. They have said so. We make a terrible mistake if we fail to listen and learn.'

'The message that retreat would send to the free people of Iraq and to moderate Muslim reformers throughout the region and the world would be that they cannot count on America,' Rumsfeld said. 'The message it would send to our enemies would be that America will not defend itself against terrorists in Iraq, and it will not defend itself against terrorists anywhere.'

The Bush administration has been warning of the dangers of a new caliphate - an Islamic superstate based on Islamic laws with religious and political authority over much of the Muslim world - to bolster waning support for its policy in Iraq.

The message is similar to the domino theory that U.S. officials used 40 years ago to muster support for the Vietnam War by arguing that abandoning South Vietnam would allow the communists to conquer neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Much as the original domino theory overlooked the t"

probably the most true thing dumsfeld has said in his 60 years on this earth

if the usa leaves iraq, it will be a first step towards kalifa

and Allah knows best

isnt that just grand

saddam was able to keep iraq in peace, bush comes in with his big boots, destroys saddams fiefdom to replace it with a bush-beachhead

american soldiers cannot win and cannot leave

conundrum?
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