Refocus and Strengthen
By DEXTER FILKINS and DAVID S. CLOUD, NY Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 23 - They just keep getting stronger.
Despite months of assurances that their forces were on the wane, the guerrillas and terrorists battling the American-backed enterprise here appear to be growing more violent, more resilient and more sophisticated than ever.
What a grand day to be a terrorist in Iraq. Praise from the New York Times journalists. Hard numbers on their strength and recruitment is not likely to be known by insufferable "journalists" casually tossing out sensationalist headlines, or from quotes from a local US commander who doesn't have the benefit of the larger picture.
But one fact is assured - terrorists are surely feeling puffed up, superior and recharged by headlines put out by these two bozos.
Has no one with a communications degree ever had a lick of sense in strategy? Or do they merely strive for sensationalist headlines and forget that terrorists are at war with infidel media as well as a world not bowing to their desired caliphate and extreme beliefs?
To boot, it's as if the Dexter and Dave Show just awoke to the fact the terrorists figured out they can't beat the US military, so they're going all out to make sure Iraq stays under terrorist rule... if not Saddam's, then theirs.
A string of recent attacks, including the execution of moderate Sunni leaders and the kidnapping of foreign diplomats, has brought home for many Iraqis that the democratic process that has been unfolding since the Americans restored Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004 has failed to isolate the insurgents and, indeed, has become the target itself.
After concentrating their efforts for two and a half years on driving out the 138,000-plus American troops, the insurgents appear to be shifting their focus to the political and sectarian polarization of the country - apparently hoping to ignite a civil war - and to the isolation of the Iraqi government abroad.
And the insurgents are choosing their targets with greater precision, and executing and dramatizing their attacks with more sophistication than they have in the past.
The terrorists, forever bent on thwarting Iraq's quest for democracy, revealed their strategy of attempted civil war back as far as the Iraqi election. It might be important to note their most valued weapon to incite fears of such a war was done primarily thru the western "chicken little" press.
Oblivious to the reality of being "used" as pawns by terrorists, the MSM willingly spread the rumours of civil war prior to the election - none of which came to be. And despite their broadcast of doomsday, the fear mongering fell on deaf ears as the majority of Iraqis bravely headed to the polls in droves. The press demeaned even that act, instead wringing their hands in chagrin about the minority Sunnis who steered clear. This despite far more percentage of Iraqi citizens participated in the election than the US has ever seen in its history as a free nation.
Since the MSM press reports of rumoured civil war also fell on deaf ears to the billions of readers around the world as well, the terrorists dropped the "American, get out of Iraq" mantra, and headed right for the throats (literally) of Iraqi elected leaders.
And to further show the disconnect of their beefs from reality, they assassinate Sunni elected leaders.
The danger is that the violence could overwhelm the intensive American-backed efforts now under way to draw Iraq's Sunni Arabs into the political mainstream, leaving the community more embittered than ever and setting the stage for even more violence and possibly civil war.
Fakhri al-Qaisi, a conservative Sunni leader, warned that if the isolation of Iraq's Sunnis was not soon reversed, the insurgents would grow even stronger.
"They will make suicide bombs, and they will destroy all," Mr. Qaisi said.
Such results appear to be exactly what the insurgents are trying to bring about.
On Tuesday, masked insurgents gunned down two moderate Sunni leaders who had been helping to draft Iraq's permanent constitution. The killings, carried out in the middle of a busy Baghdad street in heavy traffic, appeared to be calculated to squelch the voices of moderate Sunnis, and to prevent anyone else from stepping forward.
The immediate effect seemed to play right into the insurgents' hands: moderate Sunni leaders announced that they were suspending their efforts to help draft a constitution, laying down several conditions for their return.
"This operation came as part of the response against the global evil powers which are spilling the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Chechnya," it said in an Islamic website statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
Interesting dichotomy. They "worry" about isolation of Sunnis. So they kill, capture or intimidate the few elected spokesmen the Sunnis have. Obviously, since this would be counterproductive to their claimed goal, it is merely another terrorist lie to cover their own quest for rule of Iraq in the name of fundamentalist Muslim.
To carry this reality one step further, we need only examine the latest Muslim terrorist assaualt on Egypt. Their reasons, per the AQ group claiming fame for their cowardly deeds?
"The mujahedeen... have dealt a devastating blow to the Crusaders and the Zionists and the infidel Egyptian regime in Sharm al-Sheikh."
Apparently, this is a less well-read cell of terrorists. Egypt does not have troops in Iraq, and was not a coalition member. Afterall, isn't this the reason the western press has been pounding into our heads? That Iraq is the cause of all the latest terrorists' beefs?
So what was Egypt's crime? That infidels were contributing to the Egyptian economy by frequenting business there? Hardly. Terrorists themselves are happy to take money from western interests to fund their terror. When it comes to cold, hard cash, they forget their pious beliefs.
Instead Eqypt's sin was they had envoys in Iraq that were actively engaged with the new Iraqi elected government. Again, the continued assault against a free Iraq.
Iraq's terrorist darling, Zarqawi was not to be upstaged - kidnapping Algeria's Irai envoy.Loyalists of Al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman, Jordanian fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, later claimed in another statement the kidnapping of Algeria's top envoy in Baghdad on Thursday.
Zarqawi's group accused Algeria of bowing to US "orders" by dispatching an envoy to Iraq after its militants announced the killing of Egypt's envoy and the injury of a Bahraini diplomat in a kidnapping attempt in Baghdad.
Unbelievable. The western press deliberately skirts the lies that drop from the lists of terrorists as pass at every turn. And therein lies the true story that should be making headlines.
Then again, what can be expected from a media outlet that cheers terrorists on with headlines of false success.
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