ZARQAWI STRIKES

We know from the released memo that may or may not have been written by Islamist mass murderer, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, what the strategy of the enemy now is in Iraq. It is to execute coordinated mass slaughters in order to divide Sunni and Shi’a even further and so precipitate a civil war to tear Iraq apart; and at the same time to direct public hostility and blame toward the coalition forces. It’s too soon to tell how successful they have been with their horrifyingly sacrilegious slaughter yesterday. But the attacks are text-book. I persist in regarding them as indications that we are in fact slowly winning the war for a transition to democracy in Iraq, or at least a polity which is constitutional and remarkably free by Middle Eastern standards. But it is equally hard not to be concerned at the impact such mass violence can have. After all, it was acomplished by only a handful of terrorists. But there is a sliver of hope. We are extremely fortunate to have been able to capture one of these Jihadists – possibly a Yemeni, according to John F. Burns. We have to do all we can to demonstrate who exactly is behind these murders and to explain to the Iraqi people that it is foreigners and ideologues completely alien to mainstream Islam who are responsible. A huge amount now rests on our ability to do so.