Zarqawi speaks, and he doesn't sound happy

The "beloved Iraqi resistance leader" (as Michale Moore concieves of him) has spoken - not to the Iraqi people he wishes to lead but to his own fighters - and he doesn't sound like a particularly confident man:Zarqawi's latest:

As for you, fighters who came from afar, by Allah, missions of da'wa [the propagation of Islam] have never been a road lined with roses and sweet basil; the price of da'wa missions is heavy, and the price of bringing principles to the land of reality is a lot of torn limbs and blood. The light of dawn shall not be lit in this darkness save by Jihad fighters and shahids."

Al-Zarqawi warns the Jihad fighters: "Beware of the disease of weariness, beware of preferring [your own] safety, because the consequence of such a regression is remorse, God forbid.

Read the whole thing.

My impression is that Zarqawi isn't fighting the war he wants to fight either.

Fighting to deny Iraqis the chance to vote for their own government proves, to me at least, that his "movement" - using car bombs to blow up Iraqis - has not really gained him any popular support.

Zarqawi is pure Al Qaeda, and he takes his popular support for granted.

Sadr is a little smarter that Zarqawi and he is trying to convert his movement into an Iraqi version of Hezbollah - part charitable organization, part political party and part terrorist outfit. That may work for a while.

But the elections are coming. They will be bloody and chaotic, but that will be only be because both sides will realize how important they are. When Iraqis make statements with votes instead of bullets, Zarqawi and Sadr know that their strategies are losers, and it is likely to lead to a brutal crackdown from a popularly-led government against them.

Iraq may yet look like Lebanon. Whatever it becomes, the media will call it a civil war, and they will blame it on Bush.

As much as I hate war, I call it a healthy development. The Arab world - finally confronting the repressive monsters that hold it back.

Sometimes, war is a necessary thing.

This war won't go away if we try to ignore it; it will just be fought in our cities instead of theirs.

The majority of Iraqis - who have consistently said that they wish to be governed democratically (a fact ignored by the media) - need to make their wishes known, and be prepared to fight for them.


- posted by total @ 9/16/2004 05:20:00 AM .