A letter allegedly written by Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, released with the requisite fanfare and posted October 11th by John Negroponte‘s Director of National Intelligence website, is likely a forgery.
“John Negroponte said top officials in the U.S. government are confident the letter is real.”
Well, if John Negroponte and top officials in the same gov’t that lied the United States into an illegal war say it’s real. . .
al Qaeda, benevolent diplomats? Compassionate conservatives!
lists a litany of questions, including, “Can the mujahedeen kill all of the Shia in Iraq? Has any Islamic state in history ever tried that? And why kill ordinary Shia considering they are forgiven because of their ignorance? And what loss will befall us if we did not attack the Shia?”
He says the violent acts could cause al Qaeda to lose what he calls the fight for the “hearts and minds” of Muslims.
Werther in Imperial Hacks: Right and Left points to the elephant in the room:
As for other Muslim countries, why would they bail out the United States by consenting to send troops to substitute for the Anglo-American occupation? If they did not consent to it two and one half years ago, when the tide of affairs appeared to be running in the Americans’ favor, why would they do it when the tide, as far as the Americans are concerned, is now ebbing quickly? Quite apart from the fact that any Muslim government which sent troops to Iraq would risk being overthrown by its own subjects.
When Entifadh Qanbar appeared on C-Span (October 9), he pointed to Syria and Iran as suppliers of insurgents to Iraq, which could be a shining beacon of democracy if only these evildoers were conquered. Saudi Arabia is the friendly border country, agreeable to permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq and beyond, with an opposition movement that loves America and prays daily to be bombed into liberation?