Al Qaeda's war of the villages

Omar Fadhil:

The latest chapter in al Qaeda's war manual in their war against the Iraqi people and the Coalition is this: raiding remote peaceful villages, burning down homes and slaughtering both man and beast. It's a campaign of self destruction.

For about a year al Qaeda has been trying to build a so called Islamic State in Iraq. On several occasions al Qaeda has even declared parts of Baghdad or other places in other provinces the capital of this Islamic State.

But now that they are losing one base after another, their objective seems to have changed from adding more towns and villages to the "state" to destroying the very same towns and villages. Obviously, it's all about making headlines regardless of the means to do that.

This change in plans began to take shape with the battle between al Qaeda and the joint forces on Sept. 6 and 7 in Hor Rijab and then the massacre that followed in the same spot a week later and finally the attacks on other villages north, south and east of Baghdad in the last week or so.

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There is much more.

Al Qaeda has always hoped to achieve its objectives through the use of corporal punishment to get acceptance of its ideas. That is what 9-11 was about and it is what the assassination campaign against tribal chiefs is about and it is what destruction of vulnerable villages about. If you do not except al Qaeda's ideas then you will be punished.

This has been remarkably unpersuasive outside of the Democrats in the US. The Anbar awakening was a reaction to this corporal punishment campaign and it has spread throughout Iraq. Where the US has been able to offer protection, the people have eagerly given us information on where we can find and destroy al Qaeda units. Destroying vulnerable villages is not going to persuade other villages to accept the odious rule of al Qaeda.

Their last hope is that the violence of their remaining campaign will persuade Democrats to surrender.