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July 5, 2005
Is Zarqawi Getting Desperate?
Maybe there's something to those "last throes" after all.
The reputed leader of al-Qaida in Iraq said the Iraqi army is as great an enemy as the Americans and announced the formation of a new terror command to fight Iraq's biggest Shiite militia, in an audiotape found Wednesday on the Internet.
The comments, purportedly from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, appeared aimed at discouraging armed Iraqi groups from entering talks with the Iraqi government. The tape challenged critics who maintain that fighting U.S. troops is legitimate, but who oppose attacks on Iraqi forces.
"Some say that the resistance is divided into two groups — an honorable resistance that fights the nonbeliever-occupier and a dishonorable resistance that fights Iraqis," the speaker said. "We announce that the Iraqi army is an army of apostates and mercenaries that has allied itself with the Crusaders and came to destroy Islam and fight Muslims. We will fight it."
Let's see, a terrorist from Jordan looks to win support from Iraqis by advocating the killing of Iraqis. Doesn't seem like the best way to gain support for the cause to me.
The fact that Zarqawi has the need to issue this statement shows that he is facing criticism about the killing of Iraqi soldiers. It appears many insurgents consider it dishonorable. It would seem that a number of Iraqis, while having no love for the U.S., may be tiring of killing their fellow countrymen and may be considering entering the political process. Heck, he even acknowledges the resistance is divided!
Surely many insurgents must be noting that their current strategy is not working. America is not leaving any time soon. The move toward democracy is continuing pretty much unabated. They are losing this war. If they want any power, any say in Iraq's future, their only recourse may be through politics.
Zarqawi doesn't care about that; he's a cold-blooded killer, plain and simple. He is waging jihad against the Great Satan and the Zionists. But I would bet many insurgents care far more about their place in society than killing for killing's sake. They didn't want to give up their stranglehold on power, and that's why they have been fighting. But their days as Iraq's overlords, the favored of Saddam, are over and they aren't coming back. Better something than nothing, which is what they are faced with. The longer they remain separate from the political process, the more leverage they lose in any future Iraqi democracy.
The speaker tacitly acknowledged pressure to abandon the struggle against the Americans and their Iraqi allies, saying he was "saddened and burdened" by people "advising me not to persist in fighting in Iraq."
Well, what more can you say about this? If this is Zarqawi, this is stunning! There is no clearer evidence that the insurgency is losing steam and victory is close at hand. He's losing support.
He also said the Americans began speaking of negotiations to end the conflict after al-Qaida had "humiliated" U.S. forces on the battlefield.
Sure doesn't seem that he really believes that by the tenor of his comments. Wishful thinking, propaganda, and it sounds utterly unconvincing, even to the insurgents I bet.
Folks, Dick Cheney may very well have been right!
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