Article

2005-01-07 Iraq-Jordan

How Abu Musab Zarqawi transformed the Iraqi insurgency into a holy war

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Posted by Dan Darling 2005-01-07 3:39:07 PM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 So, I guess he's not captured, then.

Posted by gromky 2005-01-07 4:57:53 AM|| 2005-01-07 4:57:53 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Does anybody in the RB readership have any news on whether any progress is being made in the counter-insurgency war?

Posted by HV 2005-01-07 8:44:16 AM|| 2005-01-07 8:44:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 He exhorts followers to seek martyrdom in suicidal assaults against U.S. soldiers, Iraqi policemen and Christian churchgoers even as he remains perpetually on the run, . . .

He's the Leona Helmsley of islamofascism: "Martyrdom is for little people."

Posted by Mike 2005-01-07 9:53:43 AM|| 2005-01-07 9:53:43 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 If you're looking for a progress report best to check the milblogs of the boots on the ground in country. You certainly aren't going to get it from MSM.

Posted by Don 2005-01-07 9:54:06 AM|| 2005-01-07 9:54:06 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 So, I guess he's not captured, then

Actually, I'm very heartened by this. I joked that we will know he's been captured when the MSM begins to downplay his importance.

So obscure is his identity, so ghostly his purported lifestyle, that even some who have joined al-Zarqawiâs campaign against U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies question whether his accomplishments are mostly myth. "We have not felt the existence of al-Zarqawi," says insurgent leader Abu Lina, a top nationalist commander. "We havenât known him or understood him." But to a devoted few, his word is absolute. "Some just have to sit and listen to him," a senior insurgent leader in Fallujah told TIME, "and they walk away committed."

Wishful thinking, perhaps on my part but this seems to be the research and testing of the Zarqawi is not so important meme, with the added meme of and if we hadn't gone to Iraq he wouldn't have been able to galvanize the minions and even if the elections do go off, we're screwed anyway because now we've whipped the little brown folk into a religious frenzy and they will just take their revolution elsewhere.

but... "Ascribing the mayhem in Iraq entirely to al-Zarqawi and his minions would overlook both U.S. miscalculations and the scope of the insurgency, which may command the support of as many as 20,000."

I don't have time to really fisk this, but yes, I'm heartened.

Posted by 2b 2005-01-07 11:08:10 AM|| 2005-01-07 11:08:10 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 "Some just have to sit and listen to him," a senior insurgent leader in Fallujah told TIME, "and they walk away committed."

Well, certainly, the indubitable TIME reporter and editorial staff are.

Posted by .com 2005-01-07 11:14:31 AM|| 2005-01-07 11:14:31 AM|| Front Page Top

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