[antimedia] antimedia: The impact of the Zarqawi raid....

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Posted by antimedia:
The impact of the Zarqawi raid....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1150517303.shtml


   ....may be [1]even greater than even the most optimistic have thought.

     Al Qaeda in Iraq has been virtually wiped out by the loss of an
     address book. The death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi was
     not as important as the capture of his address book and other
     planning documents in the wake of the June 7th bombing. U.S. troops
     are trained to quickly search for names and addresses when they
     stage a raid, pass that data on to a special intelligence cell,
     which then quickly sorts out which of the addresses should be
     raided immediately, before the enemy there can be warned that their
     identity has been compromised. More information is obtained in
     those raids, and that generates more raids. So far, the June 7th
     strike has led to over 500 more raids. There have been so many
     raids, that there are not enough U.S. troops to handle it, and over
     30 percent of the raids have been carried by Iraqi troops or
     police, with no U.S. involvement. Nearly a thousand terrorist
     suspects have been killed or captured. The amount of information
     captured has overwhelmed intelligence organizations in Iraq, and
     more translators and analysts are assisting, via satellite link,
     from the United States and other locations.
     Perhaps the most valuable finds have been al Qaeda planning
     documents confirming what has been suspected of terrorist strategy.
     Also valuable have been the al Qaeda assessment of their situation
     in Iraq. The terrorist strategy is one of desperation. While the
     effort continues, to attempt to trigger a civil war between Sunni
     and Shia in Iraq, this is seen as a losing proposition. The new
     strategy attempts to trigger a war between the United States and
     Iran. This would weaken the United States, and put the hurt on
     Iran, an arch-enemy of al Qaeda. Other documents stressed the need
     to manipulate Moslem and Western media. This was to be done by
     starting rumors of American atrocities, and feeding the media
     plausible supporting material. Al Qaeda's attitude was that if they
     could not win in reality, they could at least win imaginary battles
     via the media.

   That's not all. All of the top leadership of the Sunni insurgency have
   been compromised. Their names and their entire organizations have been
   exposed.
   The result has been an almost immediate rush to the negotiation table
   to end the insurgency.

     The damage done by the post- Zarqawi raids has spurred the Sunni
     Arab amnesty negotiations. These have been stalled for months over
     the issue of how many Sunni Arabs, with "blood on their hands",
     should get amnesty. Letting the killers walk is a very contentious
     issue. There are thousands of Sunni Arabs involved here. The latest
     government proposal is to give amnesty to most of the Sunni Arabs
     who have just killed foreigners (mainly Americans). Of course, this
     offer was placed on the table without any prior consultations with
     the Americans. Naturally, such a deal would be impossible to sell
     back in the United States. But the Iraqis believe they could get
     away with it if it brought forth a general surrender of the Sunni
     Arab anti-government forces. The Iraqis, after all, are more
     concerned with Iraqi politics, than with what happens in the United
     States. Iraqi leaders believe that the U.S. has no choice by to
     continue supporting Iraqi pacification efforts. However, the
     spectacle of amnestied Sunni Arabs bragging to Arab, European and
     American reporters about how they killed Americans, might have
     interesting repercussions.

   As much as I hate for any killers of Americans to go unpunished, I
   think Americans are magnanimous enough to agree that, if the
   insurgency ends, only the most violent of the Sunni leadership should
   be tried, in Iraqi courts. After all, we have a long history of
   forgiving our enemies, after we've defeated them. (Hat tip to
   [2]Jeffrey.)

References

   1. http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iraq/articles/20060616.aspx
   2. http://jarrarsupariver.blogspot.com/2006/06/zarqawis-little-black-book.html