Is Iraq important?

4) It is not only Bush who believes that the war for Mesopotamia is the key front in the global conflict between free societies and radical Islam. Bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri has said this over and over (see below). If we’re not going to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq, where it’s most lethal, where will we fight al-Qaeda? In Pakistan? In Madrid and London?

**Zawahri quotes:**

"[T]he Muslim nation should realize that Afghanistan and Iraq are the most two important fields for confronting the contemporary Crusader war. Therefore, the Muslim nation should support the mujahdin in these two countries with all its power."

"The Islamic nation must support the heroic mujahedeen [holy warriors] in Iraq, who are fighting on the very front line for the dignity of Islam ...And to my brother mujahedeen in Iraq, I say, Stay firm. Stay together. Your enemy has begun to falter, so don't stop pursuing him until he flees defeated."

"I congratulate everyone for the victory in Iraq. You remember, my dear Muslim brethren, what I told you more than a year ago, that the U.S. troops will pull out of Iraq. It was only a matter of time. ... Bush, you have to admit that you were defeated in Iraq, you are being defeated in Afghanistan, and you will be defeated in Palestine, God willing."

"The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq."