McCain is singled out for singling out Al-Qaida

Does the Republican's assessment of the Iraq war oversimplify the war's complexities, or just simplify it for campaign purposes?

New York Times

Last update: April 18, 2008 - 9:23 PM

As he campaigns with the weight of a deeply unpopular war on his shoulders, Sen. John McCain of Arizona frequently uses the shorthand "Al-Qaida" to describe the enemy in Iraq. "Al-Qaida is on the run, but they're not defeated," is his standard line.

Critics charge that in framing the war that way, McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is oversimplifying the hydra-headed nature of the Iraq insurgency in a way that exploits the emotions aroused by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Such concerns have acquired additional heft because of instances in which members of the Bush administration have conflated the nature of the threat in Iraq.

"The fundamental problem we face in Iraq is that there is not a single center of gravity ... but a whole constellation of contending forces," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism and counterinsurgency expert in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. "... You can't have a one-size-fits-all approach."

Some analysts do not object to McCain's portraying the insurgency (or multiple insurgencies) as Al-Qaida in Iraq. They say he is using a "perfectly reasonable catchall phrase" that, although it may be out of place in an academic setting, is acceptable on the campaign trail, said Kenneth M. Pollack, research director at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

In longer discussions, McCain often goes into greater specificity about the various entities jockeying for control in Iraq.

But some students of the insurgency say McCain is making a dangerous generalization. "The U.S. has not been fighting Al-Qaida, it's been fighting Iraqis," said Juan Cole, a fierce critic of the war and a professor of history at the University of Michigan.

When Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, McCain sought an endorsement of his focus on Al-Qaida. But Petraeus responded with a more nuanced argument. Al-Qaida "is still a major threat, though it is certainly not as major a threat as it was, say, 15 months ago," he said.

NEW YORK TIMES