Al Qaeda in Iraq--Monstrous Face of Arab Jihad

Other than trying to achieve the next level, there are few human activities more worthwhile than undermining would-be autocrats, tyrants, and religious terrorists. Al Qaeda in Iraq demonstrates what the jihad will be like in any nation of the world that harbors enough sympathetic residents to shelter jihadis. The UK is incubating a horrific future, by not facing the problems that Al Qaeda brings to Iraq.

Five weeks ago, I came into a village near Baqubah with American and Iraqi soldiers. Al Qaeda had openly stated Baqubah was their worldwide headquarters — indeed, Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed just a short drive away.

Behind the village was a palm grove. I stood there, amid the crushing stench of death, and photographed the remains of decapitated children and murdered adults. I can still smell the rotting corpses of those children.

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If a child is seen by Al Qaeda as an obstacle to the jihad, Al Qaeda will kill the child in such a way as to get its message across in a visceral way.

This is the al qaeda behind the Taliban atrocities in Afghanistan. This is the Al Qaeda that is nurtured and promoted by Wahabi clerics, financed by Saudi and Persian Gulf oil wealth.

Al Qaeda would like to franchise groups in the UK, Canada, Australia, and all of Europe. Australia, at least, may be waking up to the threat. Canada is a bit slower, and the UK is the slowest of them all.

While Sweden may be lost irrevocably to the civilised world--if current trends continue--it is not necessary that the UK repeat Sweden's mistake. Sadly, there are no signs that the new PM is alert in any way to the nascent danger under his nose.

More from Michael Yon In and Around Baqubah

Michael Yon has stayed with the battle from the very beginning, and continues to report from the front.

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) had tarnished its name here by publicly attacking and murdering children, videotaping beheadings, all while imposing harsh punishments on Iraqi civilians found guilty of violating morality laws prohibiting activities like smoking. The AQI installed Sharia court had sanctioned the amputation of the two “smoking fingers” for those who violated anti-smoking laws. In part because local sentiment was shifting against it, AQI synthesized with other groups and undertook an image makeover, christening itself “The Islamic State of Iraq.” But the new name was just lipstick on a pig here.

On the evening of the 24th I spoke with a local Iraqi official, Colonel Faik, who said the Muftis would order the severance of the two fingers used to hold a cigarette for any Iraqis caught smoking. Other reports, from here in Diyala and also in Anbar, allege that smokers are murdered by AQI. Most Iraqis smoke and this particular prohibition appeared to have earned the ire of many locals. After an American unit cleared an apartment complex on the 23rd, LTC Smiley, the battalion commander, reported that residents didn’t ask for food and water, but cigarettes. In other parts of Baqubah, people have been celebrating the routing of AQI by lighting up and smoking cigarettes.

Other AQI edicts included beatings for men who refused to grow beards, and corporal punishments for obscene sexual suggestiveness, defined by such “loose” behavior as carrying tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bag. These fatwas were not eagerly embraced by most Iraqis, and the taint traveled back to the Muftis who sat in supreme judgment. Locals, who are increasingly helpful in pointing out and celebrating the downfall of AQI here, said that during the initial Arrowhead Ripper attack the morning of the 19th, AQI murdered five men. Townsend’s men found the buried corpses behind an AQI prison, exactly where they’d been told to look for the group grave. Locals also directed Townsend’s men to a torture house. Peering through a window, American soldiers saw knives, swords, bindings and drills. AQI is well-known for its macabre eagerness to drill into kneecaps, elbows, ribs, skulls, and other parts of victims.

One local Mufti who was said to have always worn a hood and sunglasses—and to have somehow disguised his voice—was pointed out to the Iraqi Army this weekend, who promptly captured him. Iraqi officials said today that although they did not previously know that this man was a Mufti, his name had been on their target list. The Mufti is being questioned and his name has not been released.

Read it all at the Source

Yes Virginia. Al Qaida is in Iraq and with the ready help of Iran and Syria, will stay as long as it takes to convince Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid that the jihadis are simply too tough to fight. For some, dhimmitude comes more easily than others.

It is dreadfully repetitive, the terror killings of civilians including women and children, the bloody torture with power drills to the head (no panties on the head for these manly jihadis). This is Pol Pot caliber terror on the populace, Taliban style terror. Communists and Islamists are very similar in that regard--both seem to reduce to the same bloody mindless tactics.

These fanatical jihadis do not rise to the level of humans, in my estimation. They have earned the most painful punishments imaginable, yet in my compassion were I to decide their fate, a single large caliber bullet in the head would likely be my merciful judgment.

Killing the Enemy, Contemplating Peace

Here is more from Michael Yon's on the spot reporting in Baqubah.

The combat in Baqubah should soon reach a peak. Al Qaeda seems to have been effectively isolated. The initial attack on 19 June achieved enough surprise that al Qaeda was caught off guard and trapped. They have been beaten back mostly into pockets and are surrounded and will be dealt with. Part of this is actually due to the capability of Strykers. We were able to “attack from the march.” In other words, a huge force drove in from places like Baghdad and quickly locked down Baqubah.

...I have been with LTC Fred Johnson for several days. LTC Johnson seems to recharge on sunlight or moonlight and can run a man into the ground. After seeing the humanitarian need building with no action to abate it underway, Johnson was very unhappy. He immediately started jerking choke chains on the people who are supposed to be handling humanitarian need, trying to avert having it build into a crisis.

This is where the inept local Iraqi commanders come in. I’ve seen them in meeting after meeting, over the past few days, finding ways to be underachievers. The Iraqi commanders have dozens of large trucks and have only to drive to our base to collect the supplies and distribute those supplies to the people displaced in the battle. Our troops are fully engaged in combat, yet the Iraqi leaders were not able to carry that load without LTC Johnson supplying the initiative. The Kurds would have had this fixed yesterday. The Iraqi commanders in Mosul would have fixed this.

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The American commanders and troops seem quite capable of wiping out the enemy when allowed. Of course their hands are tied for many political reasons, and eventually they will naturally need to hand over the non-Kurdish parts of Iraq to Arab leaders.

Anyone who has read any of the Al Fin blogs dealing with demographic topics will understand that the writers on these blogs have little esteem for Arabs. Given the general incompetence and lack of initiative of most Arabs, it is difficult to expect very much out of Iraq in the long term.

Perhaps the best scenario for Iraq's people is that Iraq not fall under the control of the type of Islamists who have made Iran and Saudi Arabia the hellholes they are. Even worse would be a Talibanisation of Iraq. Anything is possible, depending upon the political climate in the US in the next few years. Jimmy Carter is, after all, recommending that the US embrace Hamas in Palestine. Is Hillary Clinton's position really that much different than Carter's? Probably not.

Today Gaza. Tomorrow Hamburg or Paris.

The "cut and run" types believe that anything is better than war. How little they know of the genuine choices and possiblities. "Peace" can easily become more hellish than war. Look at Cambodia under Pol Pot, China under Mao, Russia under Stalin. Imagine a Hitler's Germany that never invaded the rest of Europe, but still went about exterminating all the Jews it could get its hands on. That would have been "peace", but a hellish peace.

Cut and run types have gotten this far by avoiding the difficult questions. Why should they change that now?
;-)