Stone Face of Zarqawi by Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens exposes leftist views, but knows that Iraq was far worse under Saddam Hussein, and as Saddam was pursuing mujahideen thugs to maintain control, things today would have been far worse in Iraq if Saddam was left in power. See Christopher Hitchens’ Wall Street Journal op/ed Tuesday, March 21, 2006 piece The Stone Face of Zarqawi which is posted at their Opinion Journal web site.
Christopher Hitchens’ points include:
■ “Iraq is no ‘distraction’ from al Qaeda”
■ “Zarqawi wrote ‘If we succeed in dragging them into the arena of sectarian war, it will become possible to awaken the inattentive Sunnis as they feel imminent danger’."
■ "al Qaeda in Mesopotamia understood that their main chance was the deliberate stoking of a civil war. And, now that this threat has become more imminent and menacing, it is somehow blamed on the Bush administration. Civil war has replaced "the insurgency" as the proof that the war is "unwinnable." But in plain truth, the ‘civil war’ is and always was the chief tactic of the "insurgency."
■ “Since February 2004, there have been numberless attacks on Shiite religious processions and precincts. Somewhat more insulting to Islam (one might think) than a caricature in Copenhagen, these desecrations did not immediately produce the desired effect.”
■ “There could be an even worse war, of the sort that Thomas Hobbes pictured: a ‘war of all against all’ in which localized gangs and mafias would become rulers of their own stretch of turf. This is what happened in Lebanon after the American withdrawal:”
■ “There are signs that many Iraqi factions do appreciate the danger of this, even if some of them have come to the realization somewhat late. The willingness of the Kurdish leadership in particular, to sacrifice for a country that was gassing its people until quite recently, is beyond praise.”
■ “the underestimated reserve strength of the Fedayeen Saddam, give us an excellent picture of what the successor regime to the Baath Party was shaping up to be: an Islamized para-state militia ruling by means of vicious divide-and-rule as between the country's peoples.”
■ “How can anyone, looking down the gun-barrel into the stone face of Zarqawi, say that fighting him is a ‘distraction’ from fighting al Qaeda?”
Christopher Hitchens’ points include:
■ “Iraq is no ‘distraction’ from al Qaeda”
■ “Zarqawi wrote ‘If we succeed in dragging them into the arena of sectarian war, it will become possible to awaken the inattentive Sunnis as they feel imminent danger’."
■ "al Qaeda in Mesopotamia understood that their main chance was the deliberate stoking of a civil war. And, now that this threat has become more imminent and menacing, it is somehow blamed on the Bush administration. Civil war has replaced "the insurgency" as the proof that the war is "unwinnable." But in plain truth, the ‘civil war’ is and always was the chief tactic of the "insurgency."
■ “Since February 2004, there have been numberless attacks on Shiite religious processions and precincts. Somewhat more insulting to Islam (one might think) than a caricature in Copenhagen, these desecrations did not immediately produce the desired effect.”
■ “There could be an even worse war, of the sort that Thomas Hobbes pictured: a ‘war of all against all’ in which localized gangs and mafias would become rulers of their own stretch of turf. This is what happened in Lebanon after the American withdrawal:”
■ “There are signs that many Iraqi factions do appreciate the danger of this, even if some of them have come to the realization somewhat late. The willingness of the Kurdish leadership in particular, to sacrifice for a country that was gassing its people until quite recently, is beyond praise.”
■ “the underestimated reserve strength of the Fedayeen Saddam, give us an excellent picture of what the successor regime to the Baath Party was shaping up to be: an Islamized para-state militia ruling by means of vicious divide-and-rule as between the country's peoples.”
■ “How can anyone, looking down the gun-barrel into the stone face of Zarqawi, say that fighting him is a ‘distraction’ from fighting al Qaeda?”
posted by Gene Felder at 8:40 PM
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