Global War on Terror has Seven Fronts: Youssef Ibrahim

Youssef Ibrahim has a great piece in the New York Sun entitled "The 7 Fronts Of the War On Terror" Text in full:

"The jihadist skirmishes burning around the world are flaring into a larger firestorm in the summer of 2006, a situation that will surely intensify as we approach the fifth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The fires are burning on many fronts, and the jihadists are winking and nodding to each other across the flames. Let's take an inventory of the hotspots and those about to be lit.

• Lebanon and Iraq are full-blown crises, both driven by Shiite and Sunni jihadists. In Iraq, the Shiites and Sunnis are fighting each other, but they occasionally join hands in an effort to defeat the American project. In Lebanon, the Shiite Hezbollah militia has dragged the country into a war with Israel, but in the process is returning Lebanon to the combined influence zone of Iran and Syria while destroying its Western-friendly government.

• In Gaza, a jihadist Palestinian Arab movement, Hamas, is engaged in a second-front war with Israel.

• In Egypt and Jordan, two countries that have signed a peace treaty with Israel, the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood is ramping up the pressure, organizing demonstrations and a huge press campaign in support of the ongoing Hezbollah and Hamas wars.

• From his hideout in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda's no. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has announced a union with Gamaa Islamiya of Egypt, the terror group that assassinated President Sadat. Gamaa Islamiya is urging all jihadists to support their Shiite Hezbollah brethren in Lebanon, and pushing for all jihadists in Iraq to fight Americans.

• In Baghdad last week, the Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr organized the largest anti-American, anti-Israel demonstration in the world, in the very heart of the Iraqi capital.

• And yesterday, the world was reminded once again how far the jihadist tentacles extend, as Britain announced the arrest of at least 21 Muslims on the verge of launching the biggest attack on airplanes and passengers since the September 11, 2001, assault on America.

To be sure, there is no evidence these jihadists have coordinated their actions, but they are waving at each other under what will surely be a unity banner. How could they not?

In a thoughtful article, "The Guns of August," published yesterday in the Washington Post [and reprinted in this edition of The New York Sun on page 8], a former ambassador to the United Nations and mediator, Richard Holbrooke, noted that enemies of America and its allies in the Middle East are indeed drawing closer to each other.

"Throughout the region, Sunnis and Shiites have put aside their hatred of each other just long enough to join in shaking their fists — or doing worse — at the United States and Israel. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, our troops are coming under attack by both sides — Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents. If this continues, the U.S. presence in Baghdad has no future," Mr. Holbrooke wrote.

Similarly, Israel can no longer count on a peaceful future. The real aim of the jihadist Hezbollah and its masters in Iran and Syria was to revive the notion that the Jewish state can be militarily engaged — and that it can be made to bleed.

That much has already been accomplished, as evidenced in Saudi, Kuwaiti, and Arab Gulf newspapers, which are now filled with editorials and letters to the editor calling for a "united front" against Israel and open borders in states neighboring it, so that the jihadists can "cross to the fight," even though the governments of those oil-rich countries are far more concerned with Iran and Syria than they are with Israel.

One jihadist who sees the light is the general adviser and supreme leader of the huge Muslim Brotherhood Party in Egypt, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, who this week voiced his total support of Hezbollah. He boldly disclosed to Egyptian newspapers that the Brotherhood, which counts a couple of million militant members from all walks of life, has "readied" a force of 10,000 fighters of the "same caliber" as Hezbollah. Mr. Akef said his troops were prepared to join the war against Israel, but he failed to mention that the road to Jerusalem goes through Cairo's government first. Hezbollah trained and stockpiled arms for six years with its eyes set not only on Israel, but on Lebanon, too.

It is the nature of conflagrations to happen suddenly, and the connecting events outlined here are all matches lined up too close to the fire. Jihadists have the wind in their sails, and many of them are telling each other their moment has come.

Powerline believes there is an eighth front.