Will Obama Push Back?

Al-Qaida gives President Elect Obama an experimental push.

Charlotte Observer
The self-styled leader of an Iraqi al-Qaida front group is calling on President-elect Obama and other Western leaders to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The purported leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, makes the call in a speech posted on the Internet.

It was reported Friday by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist Web sites.

Al-Baghdadi makes the call "on behalf of my brothers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Chechnya" and says it's better "for you and us" to "withdraw your forces" and "return to your homes."

These little tests will continue until Obama takes office. Then, as VP Elect Biden so famously predicted, there will be a real test. Will he push back, or try to nuance his way through "negotiating" with al-Qaida? As if that were even possible.

A great deal is riding on what he does.

Comments

[Devich]

I'm thinking in his "transition" briefings he has learned a lot more about threats to the U.S. than he did when he made the naive campaign promises to gullible voters that we need to pull out of the Middle East quickly. At least, that is my hope. Otherwise, he truly is clueless. Overall, I can't help but get the feeling we are seeing the beginnings of WW III, just as people didn't realize what was going to happen when Japan, Germany, and Italy simultaneously set their minds on rearranging borders. As someone who wasn't alive during either WW I or WW II, only the first Gulf War and the second, I am curious about your take on the trends.