Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility

Al Qaeda has now claimed responsibility for the killing of one soldier and the abduction of two others in a roadside ambush in Iraq. A statement issued by Al Qaeda stated, "Your brothers in the military wing of the Mujahideen Shura Council kidnapped two American soldiers near Yusufiya," the Sunni Arab group said. "We will provide you with more details about the incident in the next coming days."

Presently U.S. troops, supported by planes and helicopters, are searching the countryside for the two missing soldiers, we civilians, here in America, can only offer our prayers and safe wishes for these men that they are successful in locating the kidnapped soldiers before Al Qaeda begins their media fest.

The U.S. military has stated that 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces were hunting for the two missing soldiers, who have not been seen since the attack on Friday night when another soldier was killed.

I wrote a bit on this incident yesterday, in “American Soldiers taken Prisoner” and wanted to write a brief follow up now that Al Qaeda has officially claimed responsibility for the abduction. The Pentagon needs to order all U.S. Military involved with the search operation to pull out all the stops to locate these men, not just searching and interrogating suspects and interviewing witnesses, but by any means necessary. Al Qaeda does not comprehend any action other than violence; they do not negotiate or discuss unless it is in their best interest.

Operations in Iraq have demonstrated this very clearly, violence is the only tool of negotiation understood and violence is just what this calls for. We are engaged in warfare, not establishing good will through peaceful actions and the media along with the people of America needs to get this one fact through their mind if we are to succeed. This is not our peace corps in action, this is the most highly trained, professional, well-armed and equipped military in the world and they do not need constraints placed upon them. On the contrary, they need to be set free of these constraints, rules of engagement and fear of reprisals from military courts and do the job they were sent to do.

We need to be searching Iraq for every suspected Al Qaeda member, taking them into custody and interrogating them by any means. We need to search for and capture every high-ranking Al Qaeda official that we are aware of and execute one member every hour that passes until the missing soldiers are returned. Violence is what they give and violence is what they should be receiving.