Destroy Al Qaeda

There was a Japanese movie released in the US in 1971 as Destroy All Monsters. I saw it on TV sometime after that. It was cheesy, the ultimate Japanese monster movie. The plot summary in IMDB says:

Aliens have released all the giant monsters from their imprisonment on Monster Island and are using them to destroy all major cities on the planet. It is up to the daring crew of the super rocket ship X-2 to infiltrate the aliens' headquarters before the Earth monsters and King Ghidrah annihilate the planet.

There are times when life imitates art, though usually it's the other way around. But Destroy All Monsters is more a case of art predicting life. Al Qaeda is the alien group releasing all the monsters and using them to destroy all major cities on the planet, and it's up to the daring US military and its willing partners to infiltrate and destroy al Qaeda before that group of aliens and their monsters annihilate the planet.

Larry Kudlow agrees with me. In his column yesterday in the Washington Times, he makes the case against al Qaeda.

Our last, best hope in Iraq -- Gen. David Petraeus -- reminded Pentagon reporters last week of a critically important fact long forgotten by most observers: Our real enemy in Iraq, the true source of all the murders, mayhem and instability, is not sectarian strife. And it's not the Sunnis or the Shi'ites, either. The real enemy we face in Iraq is al Qaeda.

According to the top American commander in Iraq, al Qaeda's No. 1 priority is defeating the United States in Iraq. The general called this organization "public enemy No. 1," adding that "Iraq is, in fact, the central front of al Qaeda's global campaign."

He takes Senate Majority Leader Harry "Loser" Reid to task for failing to grasp this simple concept, and then Kudlow highlights a senator who gets it.

In contrast to the blind Harry Reid contingent, I'd like to highlight one remarkably clear thinker who does get what's going on in this war -- someone who recognizes the true enemy and is able to articulate his position in breathtaking clarity. I'm talking about Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Frankly, no public official understands what's at play better than Mr. Lieberman.

Mr. Lieberman forcefully stated that "al Qaeda, after all, isn't carrying out mass murder against civilians in the streets of Baghdad because it wants a more equitable distribution of oil revenue. Its aim in Iraq isn't to get a seat at the political table; it wants to blow up the table -- along with everyone seated at it."

The Harry Reids in Washington don't get it. They fail to see the terrorist fingerprints. But when you look at Iraq through the Lieberman lens, the dust settles. The task before us becomes clearer. Why are we in Iraq? We are fighting al Qaeda. Period.

We must fight them until we have destroyed all the al Qaeda monsters. Until we win. No other option will do.