Ayman Zawahiri (in a 2005 letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq): “I want to be the first to congratulate you for what God has blessed you with in terms of fighting in the heart of the Islamic world, which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam’s history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era.”

Osama bin Laden (as quoted in a 2006 speech by President Bush): “I now address… the whole… Islamic nation: Listen and understand… The most… serious issue today for the whole world is this Third World War… [that] is raging in [Iraq].” He calls it “a war of destiny between infidelity and Islam.” He says, “The whole world is watching this war,” and that it will end in “victory and glory or misery and humiliation.”

Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), Chairman of the House Armed Services Commmittee, explaining a March 27, 2007 memo instructing against the use of such “colloquialisms” as the war on terror (acceptable phrases now are the war in Iraq or the war in Afghanistan): “The Iraq war is separate and distinct from the war against terrorists, who have their genesis in Afghanistan and who attacked us on September 11, and the American people understand this.”

Perhaps Rep. Skelton could get a copy of the memo to al Qaeda — evidently they haven’t heard the news that the mass murders they are carrying out in Iraq have nothing to do with the mass murders they are carrying out everyplace else.