Gaskin: Al-Qaida in Iraq’s brutality won’t be forgotten

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Gaskin: Al-Qaida in Iraq’s brutality won’t be forgotten
By Geoff Ziezulewicz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, February 10, 2008

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq — Al-Qaida in Iraq’s indiscriminate killings during the war will prevent the group from ever regaining the loyalties of the Anbar province population, the departing commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq said Saturday.

Speaking after a ceremony during which he transferred authority of Multi-National Force — West to a fellow Marine, Maj. Gen. W.E. Gaskin said the extremist group’s beheadings and brutal Islamic fundamentalism won’t be forgotten by Anbar’s Sunni people.

“They created a blood feud,” said Gaskin, who also commanded the II Marine Expeditionary Force during the past year. “These things are not forgotten and will pass on through generations.”

Gaskin’s comments came after reports last week that al-Qaida leadership in Anbar is softening its tactics in order to regain popular support after sheiks and locals sided with U.S. forces in the past year.

Al-Qaida leadership overplayed its hand when it resorted to beheadings and cutting people’s fingers off for smoking, Gaskin said, and cannot win back the people at this point.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52343