Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2008

The "Real" al Qaeda

Frederick W. Kagan

April 2008

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

In a recent article, AEI resident scholar Frederick W. Kagan examined one of the recurring themes in the recent congressional hearings on the situation in Iraq. General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker were repeatedly told that the size and scope of our Iraq effort were preventing the United States from prevailing in the "real fight" against al Qaeda in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. Kagan, the author of four reports on Iraq strategy, including the latest, Iraq: The Way Ahead, examines the reality of the popular claim.