The Sunni's losing hand in Iraq

Strategy Page:

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This war is all about the Iraqis taking control of their country from the Sunni Arabs who have run things for so long. While the coalition destroyed Saddam's army in 2003, his secret police and Sunni Arab tribal militias were still around. These thugs went back to looking like civilians, and kept on terrorizing the Iraqis who opposed Saddam (the 80 percent who were Kurds or Shia Arabs). But now these thugs were also running into American troops, who were all over the Sunni Arab areas of central Iraq. U.S. troops usually proved fatal to Saddam's enforcers. This battle has been going on for two years, and Saddam's crew are losing. Recently, they have more frequently losing to Iraqi troops, and in the next few months, Iraqis will be in charge of security for most of the country. Over the past year, Iraqi army divisions have been activated, and taking control of security in larger and larger chunks of the country. This, to the Sunni Arabs, was the most visible evidence that they were losing. The Sunni Arab strategy was always to try and kill enough Americans to force coalition troops out of the country. Then, the Sunni Arabs believed, they could put the Kurds and Shia Arabs back in their place, and resume running the country. Seeing as how this is not working, the Sunni Arabs are now deep into democratic politics.

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The head of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, has been forced to resign from his position as the head of the "Iraqi Resistance." He was replaced by an Iraqi Sunni Arab. This was due to growing hostility towards al Qaeda by Sunni Arabs. The al Qaeda policy of terrorizing anyone who appeared to oppose them, has led the Islamic terrorists to assassinate Sunni Arab leaders who were talking to the government (or suspected of doing so.) Sunni Arabs who joined the police, or even applied to do so, were killed. Suicide bombs were set off in Sunni Arab areas, killing Sunni Arab women and children. At first, Zarqawi denied that al Qaeda was going after Sunni Arabs. But this was not believable, and now even Islamic radical Iraqi Sunni Arab groups are fighting al Qaeda. In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, there is open warfare between al Qaeda and Sunni Arab militias and terrorist groups. American combat units in western Iraq, the last refuge of al Qaeda, are finding the Sunni Arab tribes willing to give up information (often for a cash reward) about al Qaeda, and even local Sunni Arab terrorists.

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Zarqawi's demotion has not gotten much media attention, but al Qaeda has already lost in Iraq and Osama's pretensions to the contrary, al Qaeda's defeat is coming at the hands of the people he said he was there to support.