Zarqawi: he explained it all
Yesterday Andrew Sullivan opined that "a lot of what you need to know about Islamist terror was revealed today as suicide bombers killed scores in Shiite shrines. They do not represent Islam; they do not represent Iraqis; they represent nihilist murder and aspirations to totalitarianism." Unfortunately, they represent much more than nihilism and totalitarianism: they stand for a jihadist ideology that is global in extent — and that makes supremely effective use of Islamic theology, history, and law in order to gain recruits.
And part of the traditional sentiments that jihadists exploit among Sunnis is hatred of Shi'ites as heretics. This was underscored by Al-Qaeda's Zarqawi in his famous letter. From the Telegraph, :
The crowds in Karbala wanted to blame everyone except the people most likely to be responsible for yesterday's devastating attacks.For some, it was the Americans who had stayed out of the Karbala area to avoid inflaming local sensitivities who were the likeliest culprits. More originally, one man claimed to have seen an Israeli jet flying over.
No one seemed willing to draw the obvious conclusion: that the bombers were in all probability fellow Arabs and fellow Muslims, though not of the Shi'ite tradition whose holy ceremony of Ashura they defiled with innocent blood.
The attacks in Karbala and Baghdad fit perfectly the declared aim of Iraq's most wanted terrorist. In a letter found on a CD-rom seized in a raid in Baghdad in January, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi spelled out his mission in the clearest possible terms.
Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who joined up with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and is believed to be closely linked to al-Qa'eda, is open in his hatred of Shias who he describes as "the most evil of mankind". He tells his followers: "They are the enemy. Beware of them. Fight them."
Through "martyrdom operations and car bombs" he hopes to provoke the Shias into a civil war with their Sunni neighbours which, despite their superior numbers, they are bound to lose.
In the 10-page document, now widely accepted as genuine, he even sets a date for the climax of the campaign. "Zero hour will [come] four months or so before the promised government is formed," he wrote. The United States is due to hand over power to an Iraqi interim government at the end of June - in four months' time.
For the past several decades reports from Pakistan confirm attacks by Sunni on Shi'a Muslims. In the oil regions of eastern Arabia, in the Al-Hasa province that is peopled largely by Shi'a, the resentments felt by the Shi'a are not assuaged by the Saudi Sunni, but they are monitored and any expressions of discontent are dealt with in the usual Saudi manner. In Lebanon, for years, the Shi'a were regarded by the Sunni warlords and fixers who ran the country in a Sunni-Maronite condominium as largely expendable.
The idea, then, that some Shi'a should blame the Infidels -- that is, the Americans -- for the acts of Sunni Muslims, acts which differ only in deadliness, and not in any other way, with the long list of such attacks -- especially but not exclusively in Pakistan -- that have been a feature of Muslim life for centuries.
There is nothing the United States can do about this, nor is there much point in expending men, money, and political on the problem of keeping Iraq together or promoting harmony between Shia and Sunni, Kurd and Arab -- if problem it is for Infidels, which is not self-evident.
two reasons for staying in Iraq to shepherd in a democracy.
1. Tactical. A rival major oil producing nation which would undermine the power of the Saudis. We should in reality be spending on alternative energy research at Manhatten project levels in order to make obsolete the Saudis cash cow, and also to minimise climate change.
2. Humanitarian. The suffering of people does matter. Even if they have an ideology hostile to us and would not lift a finger to help us. Do we have nothing better than islam. Show them we do by behaving towards the Iraqi people far better than the Jihadis. Also do not forget the Assyrian Christians, stuck in the middle of this mess. A civil war would be an awful prospect for them.
Check out this site if you want to know a bit more about the Assyrians.
http://www.aina.org/
Re: Peter's comment:
"We should in reality be spending on alternative energy research at Manhatten project levels in order to make obsolete the Saudis cash cow, and also to minimise climate change." Succinctly, this encapsulates THE solution to virtually every Western problem with islam.
The States was attacked in 1941 by stealth; less than four years later, America had finalized and used the atomic bomb. Perhaps it is my innate optimism for the advances of which science is capable, but I offer the following: Throw $US100B per annum for 10 years at developing fusion, energy conservation and other nascent energy technologies (be it to direct grants to universities; accelerated CCA on plant and equipment; Pentagon contracts with private industry; whatever), and we'll be off oil towards the end of the decade.
Starve the wahabbis and other lunatic mullahs of liquidity, and watch their foetid cesspool states sink back into anarchy and the primordial sludge. They won't be the West's problem then.
Well put, Earl.......I agree....It would appear that booze isn't the brew of the devil, oil is.
D.C.
Anytime you hear about oil being used as weapon, it's a hollow threat, especially if the Saudis are involved. The Saudi royal family siphons off so much of the oil revenues that the Saudi government is perpetually broke. A substantial drop in the demand for oil would lead to a collapse of the Saudi economy.
jay
Don't be so sure that Zarqawi hates all the Shi'ites. His letter referred to Iraqi Shi'ites, not all of them, and there is a very old conflict between the Iraqi version (from Najaf) and the Iranian (Qom).
Moreover, we know for sure that Zarqawi has long operated out of Tehran. This is demonstrated by abundant court documentation from German and Italian trials of terrorists working for Zarkawi. The evidence consists of telephone intercepts and confessions of members of his network.