But will he move against the jihad ideology? From AP:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's national security adviser said Thursday a "huge treasure" of documents and computer records was seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's hideout, giving the Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie also said he believed the security situation in the country would improve enough to allow a large number of U.S.-led forces to leave Iraq by the end of this year, and a majority to depart by the end of next year. "And maybe the last soldier will leave Iraq by mid-2008," he said.
Al-Rubaie said a laptop, flashdrive and other documents were found in the debris after the airstrike that killed the al-Qaida in Iraq leader last week outside Baqouba, and more information has been uncovered in raids of other insurgent hideouts since then.
He called it a "huge treasure ... a huge amount of information."
When asked how he could be sure the information was authentic, al-Rubaie said "there is nothing more authentic than finding a thumbdrive in his pocket."
"We believe that this is the beginning of the end of al-Qaida in Iraq," al-Rubaie said, adding that the documents showed al-Qaida is in "pretty bad shape," politically and in terms of training, weapons and media.
"Now we have the upper hand," he said at a news conference in Baghdad. "We feel that we know their locations, the names of their leaders, their whereabouts, their movements, through the documents we found during the last few days."...
More than 450 detainees were being released Thursday as part of al-Maliki's national reconciliation efforts, according to the U.S. military.
Oh, that will help contain the jihad in Iraq -- just as the Muslim Brotherhood operatives freed from prison in Egypt by Anwar Sadat were so grateful that they...murdered him.
"Al Qaeda" in Iraq may be beaten. But so what? There is still the refusal, the permanent refusal, of the Sunnis to accept their new status, their loss of power. And they never will accept it, nor will Sunnis outside Iraq. Was it the "staunch ally," that "moderate" (corrupt, but "moderate") Mubarak, who just a few weeks ago, denounced the Shi'a of Iraq, denounced all the Shi'a everywhere, as traitors to the true-blue, Arab, Sunni Islam? And if Mubarak says that, and says it aloud, what must the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia be thinking -- oh, we know exactly what they are thinking, because one can find out how the Shi'a in the Eastern Province have been treated, we can find out what Saudi textbooks and the khutbas of Saudi clerics tell us about Wahhabi views of Shi'a. And we know about the attacks by Sunni groups, established for the sole purpose of attacking Shi'a professionals, in Pakistan.
Of course the rulers in Iraq have gotten a whiff of American discontent -- popular discontent, popular fed-up-ness with their "wake-me-when-it's-over" attitude toward the American soldiers, the quickness with which they blame those soldiers (should we forget the statements last week by Al-Maliki, about how the Americans murder Iraqi civilians every day? Is that not to be remembered?), their inability or unwillingness (save for the Kurdish troops, and here and there some officer, trotted out as a "representative figure" who "offers hope" that "things are changing" (such as the former army officer in the previous regime, the Sunni Mohammed Faiq), when in fact these "representatives" can be counted on the fingers of one, or possibly two, hands.
So they will round up more Al-Qaeda members. But will the Shi'a ever give back to the Sunnis what the Sunnis have no right to demand, but will nonetheless? Will the Kurds give up their perfectly just demands to recover Kirkuk, and the oilwells of Kirkuk, and from now on to get their just share of the oil? Since the Sunni despotism of Saddam Hussein (with a slight admixture of non-Sunni Arabs in the Ba'ath Party, open to all as it was, which helped to disguise the narrow, essentially Sunni Arab nature, of that despotism) allowed the Sunnis to profit, will not the Shi'a and the Kurds now be tempted, rightly, not to share "their" oil with the Sunnis? Why should they, after all? Because the Americans -- the Americans? -- think they should, in order to placate the Sunnis, and thererfore to calm things down, so that the American administration can leave Iraq as a healthy, quasi-happy nation-state? Oh, they might agree, temporarily, for the Shi'a exiles, and the Shi'a in Baghdad, have played those Americans for all they are worth. And right now they want to get their hands on some more money, and especially Americian military equipment, so they may in fact, over the next few months, make all the right noises -- as far as Bush is concerned -- about "sharing the oil wealth" properly with the Sunnis.
Promises, of course, to be promptly forgotten when the Shi'a get their hands on as much of that military equipment as they can, and the Americans leave -- as leave they will, if not now, then soon after the 2008 election. Why? Because almost no one supports the continuation of being stuck to Tarbaby Iraq. Some wish to leave for the wrong reasons. Some -- many of those at this website -- wish to leave for the right reasons (the better to divide and demoralize Islam, the better to husband rather than squander resources, the better to focus on non-military instruments of Jihad such as Da'wa and demographic conquest of the countries of Western Europe).
Let them round up the foreigners, the members of this over-publicized and hardly unique group called Al Qaeda. The Sunnis remain. The Shi'a remain. The resentments and hatreds remain.
Does anyone else find it ironic that Zarqawi, the icon of Jihad and anti-western values co-ordinated his campaign with western technology, Laptops, flash drives etc etc.
The hypocrisy of Muslims make my head want to explode.
Hopefully the local governments will clue on to this and begin the vetting of the demographic jihadis before we are overrun.
It seems AAZ was using jihad to justify is "cost of doing business". The koran is a perfect cover since it justifies murder (blood sacrifice) for the glory of their moon-god.
It's great that the world is getting a taste of the 2 faced methods that islam uses. Hopefully the local governments will clue on to this and begin the vetting of the slow-jihadis. They will need to watch for the likes of the receivers of the saudi golden parachute for their leaders (traitors) that will get in the way of the process though.
Iraqis need to hit hard, now, and keep hitting hard.
If the Iraqis won't do it, they're doomed.
We can simply withdraw.
They can only die.
Let them choose.