Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has declared, "The days of our open-ended commitment must come to a close" in offering legislation that sunsets America's involvement in Iraq by March 31, 2008.

But the Mohammedan Jihadist's timeline is the appearance of the Mahdi and cedeing to them their desperate ground is policy grounded in domestic politics rather than sound foreign policy.
 

In 633 AD (12 Hijri) the first Caliph Abu Bakr dispatched the the Mohammedan General Khalid bin Al-Waleed to "Fight in the way of Allah...until mischief is not more and religion is all for Allah."

Before the first battle, Khalid wrote a letter a letter to the Persian Governor Hormuz informing the Persians they had three options: 

"Submit to Islam and be safe. Or agree to the payment of the Jizya, and you and your people will be under our protection, else you will have only yourself to blame for the consequences, for I bring a people who desire death as ardently as you desire life."  

The Mohammedans have not altered the basics of the bargain for 13 centuries--Convert, live under Sharia or fight.

Through the history of Islam, the call of jihad has waxed and waned.  So much so that a major challenge for Seyyid Qutb and other Muslim brothers in Egypt was to overcome human/religious entropy and bring jihad back to its original meaning.

Case in point, in WWII when the British had to put down Axis aligned Iraqis, Imams put out the call for jihad, but few answered.

Qutb chastised the Muslim scholars who argued jihad was only for defensive purposes by pointing out the Korianic instructions and the history of the companions of the prophet and the rightly guided caliphs.

In his book Milestones, Qutb writes:

"Can anyone say that if Abu Bark, Umar or Othman had been satisfied that the Roman and Persian powers were not going to attack the Arabian Peninsula, they would not have striven to spread the message of Islam throughout the world?  How could the message of Islam have spread when it faced such material obstacles as the political system of the state, the socio-economic system based on races and classes, and behind all these, the military power of the government?"

The "material obstacles," according to Qutb, prevent men from even hearing the message of Islam for only when men are free can they choose Islam, and since freedom only comes from the Sharia Law, it must be spread through jihad.

Qutb describes the struggle as "eternal".

This concept in Islam, once waning and near extinction, has now become the dominant line of thought.  The Imams and scholars now declare that jihad must be waged until the final day--the appearance of the Mahdi.

The Mahdi is the final Imam who will arrive before the end of days, fight the anti-christ and ensure peace on earth through Sharia Law.

The Mohammedan Jihadists have established their time-line for ending the battle:  the end of time.

But Mr. Obama and others do not see Iraq for what it is, a direct assault on Dar Al-Islam that the Jihadist must repel.

The presence of American forces in Iraq has forced the Mohammedans to fight on desperate ground--ground they cannot afford to lose.

As the NIE released a few months ago stated:

"We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.  The Iraq conflict has become the "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight."

The history of Islam bears out the NIE's findings.  When beset with setbacks, when forced to modernize, the zeal for jihad and expansion waned.

Muslims are still human and thus subject to the impulse jump on and off the bandwagon.

The ultimate goal of the war in Iraq--as it stands now--is not just to stabilize Iraq but to answer the bargain offered by the Mohammedan's for 13 centuries.

We will not convert, we will not submit to Sharia, we will use the sword.

If the sympathizers and fellow travelers of the Mohammedan Jihadists see that we will use the sword to strike them down--even in Dar Al-Islam, they will cease to support the Jihadists.


To set an arbitrary timeline in a struggle with three outcomes against an enemy who sees the struggle as eternal is foolishness.

It tells the jihadists that they can win on a certain date, that we have no stomach for the sword and that the fight to install the divine Sharia as the only source of law on earth has a chance of succeeding thereby inspiring more to jump on the bandwagon.

This is why Zawhiri, in his messages to the Ummah, describes Iraq as the central battle.

America is fighting in a desert, the Mohammedans are fighting on desperate ground.

Support independent filmmaking in Iraq, Buy a DVD 

---