He’s long dead, but Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s bloody design for Iraq appears to be moving forward without him.
In February 2004, a captured Zarqawi memo laid out the al-Qaida leader’s plan to foment civil war in Iraq by attacking Shiites until they joined in the carnage.
Now, CNN reports, the Pentagon considers the Shiite militia controlled by firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (in photo) to be a bigger threat than al-Qaida. Attacks by both insurgents and militias are up 22 percent in the past three months, to about 1,000 a week. As is usually the case, the majority of the casualties in those attacks have been Iraqi civilians.
Posted by Dave Knadler
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27 Comments
IF we really wanted to kill terrorists then why did we sit on our hands while 10,000 Sadr followers danced in the street, burning american flags and chanting death to America.When I saw this scene on TV, I couldn’t believe it!Where were all the hawks?
10,000 terrorists ALL in the same place at the same time!!!!!Can’t we just drop a couple of cluster bombs and be done with the ‘Mahdi army’?
I don’t know what I would do,but I certainly know what Curtis LeMay would have done!
I’m with Tracy. If we had a chance to do that fat bastard, along with 9,999 of his followers — that’s like “good” collateral damage. Shame on us!
Yeah, what the heck is it that we want?The rhetoric says kill them over there or they’ll kill us here.IF that’s really the case,LET’S GET IT ON!Do you think our commanders in VietNam, Korea and Germany would have passed up this chance?Hay-ell NO!Doesn’t this kind of thing make you wonder what’s REALLY going on behind the scenes?
rm64, check your email for some off-blog comments.
“Our” government can’t win this thing because of potential bad p.r., political fallout and the reaction of the so-called Arab street. If they start offing large amounts of ragheads it migh put their puppets in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, etc., in jeopardy.
V.L.R.B!!
What difference does it make to the dead,the orphans and the homeless,whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianismor the holy name of liberty or democracy?….Mahatma Gandhi
McNamara’s additional ten lessons:1. The human race will not eliminate war in this century but we can reduce war, the level of killing, by adhering to the principles of a just war, in particular of proportionality.2. The indefinite combinations of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will lead to the destruction of nations.3. We are the most powerful nation in the world — economically, politically, and militarily — and we are likely to remain so for decades ahead. But we are not omniscient. If we cannot persuade other nations with similar interests and similar values of the merits of the proposed use of that power, we should not proceed unilaterally except in the unlikely requirement to defend the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii.4. Moral principles are often ambiguous guides to foreign policy and defense policy, but surely we can agree that we should establish as a major goal of U.S. foreign policy and, indeed, of foreign policy across the globe : the avoidance in this century of the carnage — 160 million dead — caused by conflict in the 20th century.5. We, the richest nation in the world, have failed in our responsibility to our own poor and to the disadvantaged across the world to help them advance their welfare in the most fundamental terms of nutrition, literacy, health, and employment.6. Corporate executives must recognize there is no contradiction between a soft heart and a hard head. Of course, they have responsibilities to their employees, their customers and to society as a whole.7. President Kennedy believed a primary responsibility of a president — indeed “the” primary responsibility of a president — is to keep the nation out of war, if at all possible.8. War is a blunt instrument by which to settle disputes between or within nations, and economic sanctions are rarely effective. Therefore, we should build a system of jurisprudence based on the International Court — that the U.S. has refused to support — which would hold individuals responsible for crimes against humanity.9. If we are to deal effectively with terrorists across the globe, we must develop a sense of empathy — I don’t mean “sympathy” but rather “understanding” to counter their attacks on us and the Western World.10. One of the greatest dangers we face today is the risk of mass destruction as a result of the breakdown of the Non-Proliferation Regime. We — the U.S. — are contributing to that breakdown.
Well DUH! Bush was warned that this would happen if he ‘broke’ the system there. Question: are Iraqis better off today than four years ago?
In what dream world will McNamara’s lofty goal occur Tracy?
Dems and Repubs alike have had a chance to take care of the poor. Instead, they pour on the pork so they can get re-elected.
In all those cases of war, 160 million dead and even in modern times terrorist attacks, these were instigated by a foreign power. Perhaps we should should just clasp our hands and be Mr. Casper Milquetoast and exclaim “Oh my!”
“…by adhering to the principles of a just war”
Yeah right, sign here Osama and agree to fight fair.
JM,
A “just war” doesn’t mean fighting fair. It means fighting for the right reason, unlike what we’ve done in Iraq.
Ben: Were it not for the technological advances we have given the Iraqis post WWII, they wouldn’t be any better than they were 4,000 years ago. And if they want to make their lives better, they’re going to have to do themselves. I wish them well. Good bye and good luck. Be glad you’re not obsidian. “Turn out the lights, the party’s over”, Achmed!
JM, I don’t believe that R.S. MacNamara has stated any “goals”,publicly or privately.
He has only shed light on his own personal hindsight.Accept it or reject it.That’s okay, it’s just his views.
IMHO, he has the smarts and experience, and we ought to pay close attention to his observations.
McNamara was an apologist in his latter years when he figured how badly he screwed up during the Vietnam era.
There is no wisdom in his lessons, just wishful unrealistic thinking.
We have to live in reality and deal with what occurs realistically.
One can make all the feel-good, hippie loving statements they want, if they don’t work they aren’t much use.
“no wisdom in his lessons”? If he learned from his mistakes I would think that there would be lessons there. If we refuse to learn from history then we are indeed doomed to repeat it.
McNamara statements provide no guidance on exactly how we should do things. It proposes pie-in-the-sky ‘Wizard of Oz’ ambitions and apologies.
There’s nothing to see here or in McNamara’s wish list of lost hope. Move along now.
You’re a bloodthirsty bunch, aren’t you?
Aye matey! We are indeed bloodthirsty! We carry a dagger in our teeth and our enemies’ spleen in our pocket!
Arrrrrrrrrrrr……..
First reaction this a.m. in reading the header on this thread was “Duh”, so I thought I would wait to see if I might arrive at some original and brilliant comment; after waiting, “Duh” is all I can muster.
With no police, no military and a weak government the militia are there to provide some sort of security. I’m sure the British figured the colonial militias were a problem to and tried to wipe them out. That didn’t work very well either. Bush is upset because Iraqi fighters aren’t playing by the rules by wearing uniforms and waving flags. I think the Brits thought the same thing about us too. I wonder which side won.
I think that one of our biggest failures that we will and are now enduring is the simple truth that not everyone will see eye to eye the same way.Bush and his business buddies, their way of life have become so isolated, so arrogant and away from any opposition that it has threatened their ideology of how they visualize themselves to the rest of the world, they are now coming to the point of realizing that their greatest enemy is their own self.If there is judgment by the Creator after life, the tally count of their sins will be unbearable and unforgiving.Christians and Islamism alike, all are guilty of being against God and his curse that was place upon man, the tower of Babylon and the confusion of tongues.
Maybe it’s time to stamp the foreheads of all who are willing to comply with the government of Iraq.
The mark of the beast, “666″
JM, don’t you have anything to do besides hang out and be belligerent?
There’s nothing in there that’s ambition or apology.Oh well, I’m sure you’re a much better man than Mac.
I am reminded of an old VietNam joke. We should put all the “good guys” (those who support us) in a boat and then carpet bomb the entire country, exterminating every man, woman and child.
Then, just to be sure, SINK THE BOAT!
This Ian has a latino last name and uses Spanish in his siganture. So is he a White Supremacist or Brown Supremacist?
Remember Franco and his Phalange allied with Hitler?
Ian Santiago is a white supremacist that claims to be Aryan, not Hispanic or Latino.
I’m just surprised nobody has suggested we post the 10 Commandments throughout Iraq. Fundies suggested it to eliminate all school violence, but I haven’t heard about it being applied to Iraq. I for one will welcome it if Pat Robertson wants to go to Iraq to nail a few to some mosques.