Comics
Leaving my normal topics for a minute –
I haven’t read comic books in years, although I was a big fan of Xmen and the like way back when. In the process of finding some quality graphic novels or comic sets to read. Stumbled upon the Watchmen, scrounged up a copy of Sin City. Feel free to post/email any suggestions. Looking forward to reading some of this stuff, and getting out of the intensive reading game for a couple days.
Zarqawi’s Hero
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross has an interesting piece up at the Weekly Standard. In it he outlines Zarqawi’s focus on his historical predecessor – one Nur ad-Din Zanki:
“One cannot understand Zarqawi and cannot attempt to predict the future of his organization and the next steps that it will take without being familiar with Nur ad-Din Zanki. Zarqawi was simply fascinated by Nur ad-Din,” al-Adel told Hussein. “Regardless of where he was, Zarqawi would always look for books about Nur ad-Din. The best presents he ever got from his acquaintances were history books that would lengthily describe the jihad that Nur ad-Din Zanki waged against the crusaders and the triumphs that he led his followers to.”
Good read, some pretty strong parallels between the two.
Zarqawi’s Kitchen Timer
Robb speculates on Zarqawi’s fishy outing (which I mentioned in my last post) in the comments here –
Here’s a total speculation (and not worth much since he had already outlived his usefulness in Iraq and analysts that attempt to explain the motivations of individuals in a hazy environment are usually on thin ground). Zarqawi was the main force behind the a major fork in the open source war: the push to sectarian conflict. He won on that but it cost him. He was also likely in motion towards seeding conflict in Jordan, which would have created a sense of betrayal among Iraqis he was fighting with. The combination put a big fat target on his head. Rather than kill him themselves, they enabled the US to martyr him (out of personal obligation and a sense that his death will serve their interests).
Sounds about right.
Zarqawi Is Dead
That’s good news purely from a propaganda perspective. The bad news is that this doesn’t matter – Zarqawi already accomplished all he could – he transferred the center of gravity (by force) to Shia and Sunni leaders. Proof of this will come as we will be seeing no downtick (maybe even an uptick) in the amount and/or scale of attacks in Iraq after his death.
Tony Blair once again demonstrates his bizarre position as a middle man between America and the rest of the world – he gets our failed efforts, but does not take the next step, as evidenced by this quote –
NOTE: Something isn’t clicking. (It may just be the fog of war). We did not have a decent picture of Zarqawi prior to his last video release, and he knew it. The sheer hubris of his last video (daylight, no mask, and more interestingly he was surrounded by masked individuals). Arguably – someone in AQ, or Zarqawi himself set the kitchen timer when they released the video to prove the point made in the first paragraph of this post. But this is pure speculation and we will probably never know what happened behind the scenes.
Open Source In Toronto
CNN –
…a group of men inspired by al Qaeda who were planning attacks in and around Toronto. The plot was said to involve three tons of ammonium nitrate — three times the amount of fertilizer used in the Oklahoma City bomb.
We won’t be able to stop most of these. Especially when they start coming from places we aren’t looking due to the focus on Islamic extremists.