Al Qaeda’s diplomatic war continues in Iraq. Zarqawi has threatened to murder the Egyptian ambassador, condemning him to a sham Islamic court where the sentence has been predetermined; “the Islamic court of the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers has decided to refer the ambassador of the state of Egypt, an ally of the Jews and the Christians, to the mujahedeens so that they can execute him.” Photographic evidence of the Egyptian ambassador’s identity documents is offered as proof of his capture.
The assaults on the Muslim diplomats have had little effect on influencing nations to flee. Pakistan is moving its ambassador to Jordan (but not abandoning its diplomatic mission). Bahrain has promoted its envoy to ambassador. Jordan, which was not the target of recent attacks, has stated it will soon send its representative back to Baghdad.
Strategy Page (July 5 entry) reports the attacks on the Arab diplomats will backfire as some Iraqi Sunnis will resent these actions. The Iraqi Sunnis do not view the Arab governments as al Qaeda views them – as apostates.
Iraqi terrorists have attacked Arab diplomats before, and experienced a very negative response from the Sunni Arab community (the only base of support the terrorists have in the country). These kidnappings are seen as madness, and the kidnapping of an Egyptian diplomat over the weekend was promptly criticized by Iraqi Sunni Arab groups known to support the terrorists. Two more Arab diplomats were attacked as well. While some terrorist groups feel that it is possible to scare Arab diplomats out of Iraq, most do not. This is a long shot, because the Sunni Arab terrorists in Iraq really don’t have much support, at least at the government level, in other Arab countries. Al Qaeda is opposed to all current Arab governments, but most of their Sunni Arab allies in Iraq are not (they want Saddam, or someone like him, back in charge). It’s a strange situation.
The Saudi-run Arab News provides backing to Strategy Page’s analysis.
The idea that Iraq can somehow ride to liberation on a tidal wave of innocent Iraqi blood is sickening. It smacks of the wicked indifference of Bolshevism when Lenin and then Stalin deliberately organized famine to destroy political opposition in vast swathes of the Russian countryside. This inhumanity was perpetrated in the name of a better world that Communism never delivered.
We can only wonder what ordinary Sunnis really think of this new front that has been opened by the insurgents and their Al-Qaeda allies against diplomats. Perhaps they are beginning to believe that an insurrection that once engaged their support is turning into an indefensible negation of all decent values. They may begin looking more seriously at the route to a diverse but fully representative Iraq offered by the new constitution and the interim administration. It is one thing to attack a heavily-armed American soldier in the hatred-filled belief that he has not come to bring peace but rather to occupy. It is quite another to prey upon a diplomat, whose peaceful mission is to listen and understand. Sadly, however, perhaps that is precisely why Arab emissaries are being targeted – because they are in the strongest position to comprehend the moral bankruptcy and infinite evil of Al-Qaeda killers and their deluded allies.
Zarqawi’s latest actions in Iraq highlight the tin ear possessed by many Islamist fanatics. In their zeal to brand anyone not in lockstep with their perverted brand of Islam, they alienate segments of their support base. The multiple reports of red-on-red fighting in Qaim demonstrate violent opposition from the Sunni community materializes when they are pushed too far. Zarqawi doesn’t have the common sense to bypass certain tactics that will reduce their support in the Sunni community, and this very well may be his and al Qaeda in Iraq’s undoing.
