Sunday, June 11, 2006
Terrorists, Jihadis, Liberators
Iraq -Deaths and Destruction in the Name of God and Righteousness * For Democrats, Money from the People
'He is not dead, he is alive with God This is a wedding, not a funeral' Ghaith Abdul-Ahad attended Abu Musab Zarqawi's funeral in the town of Zarqa, Jordan. Reading his account in the Guardian (June 10th) again made me think about the strange world of extremists. They look at the world quite differently than the rest of us, and not all of them are Islamic.
- In Amman, a jihadist told the Guardian: "The Americans created from him a pretext for the failures in Iraq. He was never in control of the whole insurgency, but they tried to negate the fact that the Iraqis had a legitimate resistance movement.
- "His death will help the Iraqi mujahideen, because now no one can accuse them of being followers of international terrorism. He had created an umbrella network for the mujahideen in Iraq ... as an attempt to unify them and to have the nucleus of an Islamic state. And this group will continue to work.
- "Zarqawi's main loss [will be felt] not in Iraq, but the region. He was trying to expand the jihad to the rest of region, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon," he added.
- From Baghdad, a commander of the Iraqi insurgency was more upbeat about Zarqawi's death. "May God have mercy upon him, but things will change now," he said. "[Zarqawi] was committing lots of mistakes. Just wait for a few weeks and you will see the difference."
- In the funeral tent, the teenager next to me was wearing a black cap. "My uncle might be dead, but his ideas are here," he said, pointing at his heart.
- The sheikh, Zarqawi's former comrade, was looking to the future: "Oh, Allah, we pledge our alliance to our brother Abu Abdul-Rahman." In reference to the new head of the shoura council of mujahideen, the umbrella group formed a few months ago by Zarqawi, he named Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi as the head of the new organisation.
- "Allahu Akbar ... Allahu Akbar" came the cry. "Oh, Bin Laden, don't worry, we will be Zarqawis," shouted other men.
Depressing. The cycle of violence isn't going to end anytime soon. There is no justification for actions of Zarqawi and bin Laden. Zarqawi died as he lived. Think of the more than 40,000 Iraqi civilians who have died in our war to liberate them. Is there justification for that ?
*
Money from the People
Money from the People
After years of lagging behind, fund raising efforts by Democrats have succeeded in bringing them close to the Republicans who have had the advantage of fat cats' contributions. The good news is that money for the Democrats has come from ordinary people. The Post: " A surge in small, individual contributions is lifting Democratic campaigns this year and is helping close a Republican fundraising advantage that has existed for years in national politics, according to Federal Election Commission data. "
- Democratic House and Senate candidates and their two major campaign committees are enjoying stronger grass-roots support than at any time since the GOP took over both chambers of Congress in the 1994 elections, according to strategists from both parties who have reviewed the most recent FEC data released this spring.
