Posted on 05/23/2005 4:11:21 PM PDT by CHARLITE
The biggest mistake we can make in the War on Terror is to underestimate our enemies. As we watch terrorists in Iraq increasingly target civilians, so-called “soft targets,” it’s tempting to think they’re doing so merely out of frustration or sheer rage. While individual, low-level terrorists may even be dull-witted enough to think that blowing up innocent men, women and children advances their cause -- to enslave the world under fundamentalist Islam -- those who pull their strings are anything but stupid.
As the terrorists in Iraq switched their main focus from American military personnel to civilians, the Iraqis began to transfer their ire from the Coalition government to their own officials. It was tempting to breath a small sigh of relief, if only for the lessening of both American casualties and anti-American feelings. Even now, most people continue to wonder why the terrorists are so stupid as to attack innocent Iraqi civilians. Don’t they realise that they’re just turning public opinion against themselves?
Of course they realise. At least, their leaders do.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is anything but a stupid, mindless killer. In fact, he’s a highly intelligent, extremely clever killer. He has been part of the terrorist movement in Iraq since before Saddam was removed from power, as Jordan’s King Abdullah attested in a recent interview. “Since Zarqawi entered Iraq before the fall of the former regime we have been trying to have him deported back to Jordan for trial, but our efforts were in vain,” Abdullah said. Zarqawi is a Jordanian, but Saddam apparently refused to turn him over to Jordan’s government to answer for his attempted 1999 bombing of the Radisson Hotel in Amman. (Meanwhile, the Liberals still try to tell us that Saddam had no ties to international terrorism.) Zarqawi was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but has yet to serve his time.
Saddam sheltered Zarqawi when he fled to Iraq after Coalition forces destroyed his terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. Now he leads the terrorists working to destroy Iraq’s fledgling democracy. Al-Qaeda has become so heavily invested in Iraq that beating the so-called “insurgency” there will strike a major blow to them. But is Zarqawi dumb enough to miss the fact that blowing up kids in Iraq’s marketplaces is turning the populace not against each other, but against him and his terrorists?
In fact, he may be counting on it.
If Zarqawi and his merry band of thugs can drive the anti-terrorist feeling in Iraq to a fever pitch right before the next election, any candidate who promises to fight the terrorists will garner plenty of votes. A candidate perceived as capable of halting the attacks altogether would probably win in a landslide --even if that means making a deal with Zarqawi, instead of fighting him. Could the Iraqis be stampeded into accepting a candidate who’s actually working with the terrorists?
We’ve already seen how an angry, panicked populace can be manipulated by terror and threats. The people of Spain voted for the candidate who promised to comply with al-Qaeda’s demands to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq as part of his campaign. Although Jose Zapatero stood little chance of winning the 2004 election, the terrible terrorist attacks in Madrid helped bring him victory. Terror can be used to manipulate elections, even in a country with a history of democratic elections. How much easier will it be to push Iraqis into voting for a new strongman just to stop the attacks on Iraqi civilians? Is that what Zarqawi is trying to accomplish?
The most important job our forces in Iraq have over the next few months is counter-terrorist activities like Operation Matador, during which combined US forces killed over 125 terrorists and captured huge stockpiles of terrorist material. It is essential to break the back of the terrorists before Iraq falls under the sway of a new Saddam. If that happens, our efforts there will have been in vain.
About the Writer: Joe Mariani is a computer consultant and freelance writer who lives in Pennsylvania. His website is available at: http://guardian.blogdrive.com.
Mariani has a good point here. If Zarkawi's thugs succeed in continuing the slaughter of Iraqi civilians, security forces and police, then as history has shown, they could turn to a "strong man." Saddam was such a strong man, as were all of the other worst dictators throughout history.
Bottom line is Zarqawi and Al Duri both need to be "got" within Iraq -
Not exactly. The ruling government tried to pin the attack on internal seperatists, not islamic terrorists. The leftist jumped on this and the ruling government was caught in a lie.
On the other hand. The Iraqi people know who the terrorists are and they know who is killing them.
At any rate, a small group of thugs that picks a fight with the worlds only Superpower, is just plain old stupid.
Maybe...and good points all, but maybe the terrorists are simply religous fanatics after all.
I, like many others have read article after article where the author wails why, why in a Clauswitzian (sic) sort of way - as if Westernized motivations will somehow explain what the terrorists are doing. Few take their religious fanatisism into account or dismiss it as more of an afterthought on the way to making some other point.
Maybe they see Iraqi's who cooperate with the Iraqi government and coalition troops as apostates. This gives them not just the right to kill women and children, but the DUTY to GOD to kill them. It's plain and simple. They are dispensing just punishment from God.
I won't argue either way as to how much credence this article may contain. It is to easy to present "what if" scenarios in this case. We continue to hear many different viewpoints expressed by a variety of people on what actions should be taken. Obviously Zaqwari must be found soon and put out of commision, along with his key lieutenants. And the same goes for general Izzat el Douri and his band of Saddam loyalists.
Hopefully good Intel and CI will prove effective as the Iraqi Army elements and police continue to build in strength and abilities. Some time soon I expect to hear a real break has occured in finding them and leading to their capture.
Time is not on their sides.
I don't agree. I suspect these people are just desert thugs, extreme versions of a culture that has always admired cunning and ruthlessness. That doesn't mean they aren't invested in the mythological aspect of their professed doctrine; you can't say they're cynical. They do believe fervently in their own supremacy as muslims and the eventual establishment of a supreme caliphate uniting all Arabs and so on. But their mythologizing is simply a means of self-agrandizement, a vehicle to power: in their mind they are the Caliphate. The core of their fanaticism is materialistic, but this fanaticism is religious.
They consider anyone else between them and their intentions expendable. The slogan "Kill'em all and let God sort'em out" is their credo, they will kill whoever it suits them to kill, muslim or not.
The fact that they've gone to such trouble to kill and to conspire to kill shows they are rational. The deaths are not any end in and of themselves, but the means to driving a wedge between muslims and the rest of the world.
Ping
It seems that I find another threat to us, everytime I open my eyes.
"The core of their fanaticism is materialistic, but this fanaticism is religious."
I think we're saying something similar. I agree that these people will kill anyone who gets in their way. The justification is religious, but the means and planning and ends (The Caliphate)are all of this world.
Exactly. And they see themselves dominating the center. Their construct is ego-centric.
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