Chalk one up for the good guys

By George Dienhart

Today, the Pentagon announced the capture of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. Al- Hadi, a high value target, was believed to have been traveling back to his native Iraq to direct attacks against the west. This is yet another victory in the Global War on Terrorism.

This was a big catch, and a big deal that the left is likely to ignore. How big a deal? Al-Hadi had been a member of the 10 person al-Qaeda ruling Council, called the Shura. This was an advisory council to Osama bin Laden. It was essentially bin Laden’s cabinate.

Imagine if al Qaeda captured Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. head of the treasury department. It’s that big a deal. While their duties do not match up, their importance to their respective organizations does.

So where was al-Hadi coming from? Quite possibly the wacky left’s latest cause, Iran. He’s been ID’d as having met with al Qaeda there. Yes, the same Iran that House speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to cozy up to. Just recently, Iran was holding British subjects hostage. Now Iran, always trying to undermine American interests in the region, is caught harboring high level al Qaeda operatives. Are we supposed to be surprised?

What are we supposed to do? Should we go on defense, as the Democrats would like? Should we repeat the mistakes that I like to call the “Clinton Doctrine’? We can’t just put our heads in the sand and hope that nothing happens again. This had disastrous effects earlier. The costs would be higher this time.

The Clinton Doctrine cost us cost us thousands of lives one September morning. If anything, President Bush’s administration has proved that the best defense is a good offense. There have been no domestic attacks since 2001. If we had just bombed some aspirin factories in retaliation, we would have been hit again. Instead, we went on the offensive, fighting our battles closer to our enemy’s homes.

This capture, along with the Saudi operation disclosed earlier today, show that contrary to what Harry Reid believes, we are winning this war. Despite the Democrats constantly undermining our government’s best efforts to protect us, we remain safe. Let’s hope the Democrats don’t do too much damage over the next 2 years, or Harry Reid may get his wish.