Two new developments. Another horrifying mass murder by the “insurgents,” i.e. Jihadists and Baathists. This time, they underlined their message by murdering fourteen mourners at a funeral for a public official that the Jihadists murdered earlier this week. They kill and kill again. This particular incident cannot in any way be attributed to the presence of the Coalition forces. It’s designed to terrorize Iraqi civilians into a new dictatorship. You have to believe that most Iraqis can see this for what it is. In fact, I do believe it. After the transfer of sovereignty, you can see the potential contours of the struggle that will now define that country and the region: terrorists versus democrats, Jihadists versus Muslim patriots. Remember this has never happened before. In the police states of most Arab countries, there’s no democracy to fight for or against. But now there’s a chance that there will be. And so we will get tough Arab democratic leaders (like Allawi) cracking down on terror; and we will also get new vigilante groups targeting the Jihadists. Here’s a fascinating quote from a video made by a group of viglantes who are now targeting Zarqawi:
“We swear to Allah that we have started preparing … to capture [Zarqawi] and his allies or kill them and present them as gift to our people… This is the last warning. If you don’t stop, we will do to you what the coalition forces have failed to do.” (My italics).
Notice what these people must have absorbed to put the battle in that context: that the coalition did indeed liberate Iraqis from tyranny, that they have been unable to prevent terrorists from exploiting the subsequent power vacuum, but that Iraqis themselves will now do the job. The silver lining of the U.S. failure to pacify Iraq just widened a little.
The Dish 