Al-Qaida memo details war attempts

Single terrorist organization seeks willing insurgents for short-term war-starting… Single terrorist organization seeks willing insurgents for short-term war-starting relationship.

A 17-page memo confiscated from an Al-Qaida suspect reveals two things about the current state of Iraq, and the United States’ occupation there.

First, Al-Qaida is, in fact, working in Iraq, attempting to start a sectarian war between the Shiite and Sunni Muslims there, though the organization has not been connected to Saddam Hussein’s regime in any way.

And, second, it’s having trouble recruiting.

The Christian Science Monitor, building on reports done by The Sydney Morning Herald, The New York Times and the Associated Press, reported that the memo taken from Abu Musab Zarqawi and translated by the U.S. military called for a war, but, as the Associated Press reports, “the resistance against the U.S. occupation was struggling to recruit Iraqis and to combat American troops.”

Obviously, this is good news for both the Iraqi people and the U.S. personnel stationed there. It speaks to the fact that Al-Qaida and Hussein loyalists have not been linked conclusively, and that Al-Qaida is thankfully suffering because of that.

Al-Qaida and Hussein had different agendas — both terrible and destructive, with the United States as a common enemy, to be sure — but vastly different.

And now that Hussein has been deposed, the Iraqi people shouldn’t be swayed by an organization that wants to start massive internal strife before June 30, when the United States is supposed to give the Iraqis sovereignty.

Al-Qaida is attempting to play on animosities between Sunni and Shiite Muslims; the Shiites are the majority in Iraq, and, according to The Times, the memo suggests attacks on Shiite sites in order to incite Sunni opposition.

The Times also reports that Zarqawi is presumed to have had a role in several recent attacks, including three car bombings within the past six months.

Though this news cannot repair the damage done, nor bring back the lives lost, it does indicate that some of the resistance within Iraq comes not from the Iraqi people, but an outside organization. That organization is one that is losing its ground there, and one with which people are not willing to cooperate. Whatever identity Iraqi people develop, it will not include Al-Qaida and large-scale sectarian war. And hopefully, Zarqawi and people like him will not gain footholds in an already troubled country.