Advantage: Reality

Yesterday, StratFor claimed that the Administration had backed down from waging war against Iraq, because to do so would harm the war effort against al Qaeda.

The Bush administration has begun to back down from plans for a near-term attack on Iraq. The controversial plan was shredding the coalition against al Qaeda, which Washington needs in battling the group. But the Bush administration’s retreat from Iraq, although necessary, forces it to manage a political and psychological defeat.

This site said StratFor is almost certainly wrong.

Just yesterday, Rumsfeld was on Brit Hume, making the case for war without compromise. And there are many other indications, both public and not-so-public, that US special forces are already engaged in Iraq, as well as preparing for something bigger.

Today, Bill Gertz reports for the Washington Times:

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that al Qaeda terrorists are inside Iraq almost certainly with the support of the government in Baghdad.

“In a vicious, repressive dictatorship that exercises near-total control over its population, it’s very hard to imagine that the government is not aware of what’s taking place in the country,” Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon.

In other words, Rumsfeld argues that war against Iraq is part of the war against al Qaeda. The muffled sound you hear is the good folks at StratFor, attempting to fit a second foot in their mouths — leaving them not a leg to stand on.

(It’s fun to mix metaphors.)