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Iraq
Rice: Late terror commander `brilliant'
2007-09-26
NEW YORK --Slain al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a "diabolically brilliant" war tactician, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, likening the terror commander to Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.

Zarqawi's successors are less talented, and less able to manage what may be a shift in Iraq away from sympathy for foreign-born fighters, Rice said in an interview. Zarqawi was killed by U.S. forces more than a year ago. Since then, the al-Qaida in Iraq network he led has suffered setbacks but has proved a resilient threat.

"He was diabolically brilliant," Rice said of Zarqawi. "I think he was an outstanding organizer, I think he had a kind of strategic sense, and I don't think the follow-on leadership has been quite as good," Rice said in the interview with Fox news.

It is wrong to dismiss Zarqawi's killing as a temporary or insignificant victory in the long fight against terrorism, Rice continued.

"When you hear people say ... 'If you kill one of them, they'll just replace him with another leader,' remember that that's like saying, 'If you take out Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant, well, they'll just replace them with another leader.'" Rice said. "There are people who are better at this than others."

After the death of the Jordanian-born Zarqawi, "they started to make more mistakes."

Al-Qaida in Iraq is a homegrown Sunni extremist group, comprised mainly of Iraqis but in some cases led and financed by foreigners. The Bush administration says the shadowy group overreached in Anbar province, leading to a revolt by local sheiks.

Rice, who visited Anbar with President Bush this month, agreed with a questioner who asserted that "these foreign fighters have recognized that the game's changed and has turned against them."

"They're still hoping for parts of Iraq, which is why we've got to stay on the hunt. I mean, they moved from Anbar to Diyala," Rice said. "But your point is exactly right. They're going to want to go someplace else because I think it's not going to be long before they're not welcome anywhere in Iraq."

U.S. commanders in Iraq told The Associated Press in July that al-Qaida has been run out of some parts of the country yet still has the will, financing and fighters for significant attacks.

"They're in disarray, but they're always trying to make a comeback," Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said in an interview. His area includes Diyala province, where al-Qaida in Iraq had a firm grip until recent heavy U.S.-led fighting.
Posted by:gorb

#24  Could be. Or, if they were related, it could go the other way, i.e. info found in Iraq might have uncovered the Canadian cell.

Some really incredible work was done in-theater to slowly discern the social networks among and around the jihadis and use them to zero in on the leaders. Emails with 'nyms cross catalogued. Figuring out who was a 3rd cousin of whom. Bit by bit information was assembled, a huge jigsaw puzzle where you didn't know the final picture and only got the pieces a few at a time.

It's how we got Saddam earlier as well.
Posted by: lotp   2007-09-26 19:08  

#23  About a week or so before we got Zarkawi, a cell in Canada was discovered and dismantled by the Canadian government. I've always suspected (probably wrongly) that the intelligence gathered from the Canadians is how we got the until-then elusive Mr. Zarkawi.
Posted by: Daffy Thuper9856   2007-09-26 19:03  

#22  RICE: likening the terror commander Slain al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.

Shes an Idiot about the Civil War, period!

Shes totally ignorant about General Lee who was 10 times the General than that of General Grant.

Zaquari might be compared to a raider of some sort during the Civil War, but he couldn't hold the socks of General Grant.

Related sort of..

I watched Alan Greenspan over the weekend on C-Span and the longer he talked i realized that we Citizens are in DEEP SHIT.

Alan Greenspan is an Idiot Savant, he may have a good math background but his only answer for bailing out the US economy was unlimited immigration from Mexico.

Schockingly Alan Greenspan and his fellow elites don't have a clue about OUR SACRED SOIL. Its called America Alan. And my families BLOOD has been split for it and over it.

America is a Real Place not some Global bank book or a Global state of mind.
Posted by: Red Dawg   2007-09-26 18:17  

#21  In any case, the idea is that they are learning from him and not dismissing him. It is the right thing to do, sadly.
Posted by: gorb   2007-09-26 15:19  

#20  there's no need to publicly glorify Zarqawi.

Bingo, KBK.

"He was diabolically brilliant," Rice said of Zarqawi. "I think he was an outstanding organizer, I think he had a kind of strategic sense, and I don't think the follow-on leadership has been quite as good," Rice said

It would serve our nation's interests far better to replace this sort of glowing assessment with searing descriptions of Zarqawi's propensity for mass murder, slaughtering Iraqi Muslims like sheep and his role as Islamic jihad's point man.

Pretty snarky of Dr. Rice to dis the current leadership of AQ by lowering the bar so low.

There are many other ways to expose the inadequacies of current al Qaeda leadership without wasting network airtime lacquering up this psychotic thug to a high gloss. Better to have used such a golden opportunity by vividly describing how we spattered Iraq's countryside with gobbets of his smouldering flesh and pointedly noting that we will do the same to every successor in turn. It makes ZERO sense to tutor our enemies regarding their current lack of administrative or tactical skills.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-09-26 14:16  

#19  Secretary Rice's blather about a mass-murderer of women and children makes me thirsty.
Posted by: mrp   2007-09-26 13:39  

#18  I, for one, find it fitting that Zarqawi died in a "brilliant" flash.
Posted by: Dar   2007-09-26 12:45  

#17  In the land of the blind, the cyclops seems like a genius.
Posted by: JohnQC   2007-09-26 12:00  

#16  Rice is a lightweight who has done a lot of damage to US interests. This is typical; there's no need to publicly glorify Zarqawi.
Posted by: KBK   2007-09-26 11:37  

#15  Since at least 2004 there's been a near constant rotation through the Number 3 spots on the organization chart, and the Number 2's, and even the Number 1 spot.... not to mention the poor cannon fodder. Granted, some of that has been the result of catch-and-release, but even so.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-09-26 11:16  

#14  The current AQI leadership may not be quite as brilliant but, to their credit, we still don't know who they are or where they are. Most importantly, they are still alive

The current generation of them, you mean?

We may or may not know who they are. If not, there are Iraqis who do. Odds are that at some point we will receive the necessary and timely tips to take care of them.
Posted by: lotp   2007-09-26 10:41  

#13  I'm no expert in these matters but the impression I got was Zarqie was too charismatic, too flashy and too daring. He had a number of narrow escapes before our people finally lowered the boom on him. The current AQI leadership may not be quite as brilliant but, to their credit, we still don't know who they are or where they are. Most importantly, they are still alive. If they are tenacious and able to learn as they go they could be even more dangerous. It would be a really great victory if our people could kill or capture whoever this person (or persons) is. That would send an undeniable message that no matter who they put up there he will get whacked.
Posted by: treo   2007-09-26 10:27  

#12  So isn't it past time to promote an American Hulagu?
Posted by: ed   2007-09-26 10:24  

#11  From the Jacobine link, I had to stop reading at this point.

A few of us, including me, pointed out that it wasn't going to work that way, but we were drowned out because Jacobinism is the national sentiment, taught in every US college and high school. In every human heart beats the desire for freedom. Democracy is the only legitimate form of government (counting noses and weighing the vote of the village idiot the same as that of the professor is the only legitimate form of government) (being governed by the first 500 names in the Boston telephone directory rather than Harvard University faculty is the only legitimate form of government)...

I would rather be governed by the first 500 names in the Boston phone book than Harvard faculty anyday. Under any situation.

Sounds to me like yet another elitist snob insulting the Average Joe.
Posted by: Mike N.   2007-09-26 10:16  

#10  Short term POV, IMO

Longer term POV sees a very different story, to my eyes at least.
Posted by: lotp   2007-09-26 10:07  

#9  It wasn't Zarqawi genius, it was your administration's Jacobine stupidity, miss Rice.
Posted by: gromgoru   2007-09-26 10:02  

#8  but that would give the press too many opportunities to compare the surge to the march to Atlanta

The only comparable part of the two would be that they were both effective. This is, of course, not how they would be compared in the MSM.
Posted by: Mike N.   2007-09-26 09:33  

#7  Zark was cunning and he put the fear of death into those around him and into the territories that AQ controlled. His followers lack this attribute. I think it is a good idea to point this out publicly that the current batch of AQ in Iraq are sad and pathetic.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-09-26 09:24  

#6  My, my, my. According to the comments no one has ever heard of PsyOps. Pretty snarky of Dr. Rice to dis the current leadership of AQ by lowering the bar so low. As far as Grant goes, Lincoln had to go through about a dozen or so generals until he finally found one who could pursue the end game correctly. More like what Bush has had to go through to get Petraeus.
Posted by: Jack is Back!   2007-09-26 09:20  

#5  Thanks lotp. Good background. I had been feeling uneasy about her giving any positive appraisal of Zark, but this puts it in a different light.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike   2007-09-26 09:13  

#4  That's true - he was a thug.

But commanders I've talked with who served there in 2004-2005 considered him very very effective at what he did.

Rice is trying to counter the drip...drip...drip of defeatism in the press. I'm sure that Grant, in particular, wouldn't mind. Gen. Lee was a gentleman and would be quite dismayed by the crass bloodthirstiness of most of the parties in Iraq, I suspect.

She might have compared Zarqawi to Gen. Sherman, but that would give the press too many opportunities to compare the surge to the march to Atlanta.
Posted by: lotp   2007-09-26 08:41  

#3  [he] was a "diabolically brilliant" war tactician, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said

Ms. Rice, the operative word here is "was." He's dead because someone was a little better at the game than him.

Ms. Rice you are giving Zark too much credit. He was basically a muzzie gangsta thug. He was cruel, vicious, knew no rules, a murderer, torturer, etc. Basically a scum-swizzling $hit-head who is no more. You are mistaken to give him one ounce of respect. He was not like Generals Lee or Grant. These men were well-trained U.S. Military Academy generals who had morals and ethics. Think more of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer.
Posted by: JohnQC   2007-09-26 08:37  

#2  That's not quite fair to Dr. Rice, I think.

She is quite versed in cold war military issues and was very respected in that arena.

In this case, which was not her research area (but then, not many studied Islamicist insurgent terror back in the day) she is no doubt using language provided by people in the counterinsurgent arena. I've heard US O3-O6s (captains through full colonels) say the same thing.

What she refrained from saying is that Zarqawi's success rested in part on a gleeful willingness to slaughter civilians.
Posted by: lotp   2007-09-26 08:33  

#1  Sorry, Mrs Rice but AFAIK your qualifications on military matters are Zero, Zilch, nada. You are not even on the same level as your average wargamer or person whose hobby is military history or tactics.
Posted by: JFM   2007-09-26 08:04  

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