Al-Qaeda declares Islamic Iraqi state--and US is still there!

[BurtWorm]

From Abu Aardvark:

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2006/10/alqaeda_declare.html

Al-Qaeda in Iraq, as part of the Muhajideen Shura Council, just declared an Islamic Iraqi State in the Sunni parts of Iraq, to be run on jihadist foundations, in a tape posted on an internet forum and later broadcast on al-Jazeera. The declaration came in direct response to the passage of the federalism law, which many believe will lead to the Shia going the way of the Kurds. This declaration has received oddly little attention in the US media (short accounts can be found in the New York Sun, and AP in the Washington Times and the IHT). Odd, since the main justification in the Bush administration's latest salvo of Iraq defenses (along with the need to prevent a civil war, which has arrived without our departure) was the (absurd) claim that if the US withdrew, al-Qaeda would establish a Caliphate in Iraq. Seems they've gone ahead and done so, without even waiting for the US to leave. Shouldn't that be news?

But the declaration of the Iraqi Islamic State hasn't exactly rallied Iraq - or even the Sunni community, or even the rest of the insurgency - to al-Qaeda's side. According to al-Hayat, other major Sunni groups, including those active in the insurgency, have denounced al-Qaeda's move as counterproductive and irresponsible. Even some major Islamist factions of the insurgency have dissented, and the jihad discussion boards are filled with considerable confusion and disagreement about the move. Reports that Jaysh al-Islami rejected the declaration and called on its followers to declare loyalty to Saddam and Ibrahim al-Duri seem to have spread particular anxiety and confusion.

In part, this reflects the tension between al-Qaeda, which wants the US to stay and bleed, and the mainstream insurgency which really does want the US out. A number of insurgent groups reportedly denounced al-Qaeda's move, which they see as harming the prospects of the insurgency defeating the occupation. Nahid Hattar, a Jordanian commentator who quite admires the Iraqi insurgency, blasted al-Qaeda in Iraq yesterday, claiming that al-Qaeda was working in the American interest. The noble insurgency, he writes, seeks a unified Iraq free of foreign occupation, while al-Qaeda seeks to divide Iraq (by fomenting Sunni-Shia civil war) and provides the US with an excuse to stay.

...

[Subdivisions]

1. Not in this all-good-news-for-Bushco media

[sabra]

2. seems like there are reports of gunmen celebrating this declaration

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2568143

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Somebody needs to post this at Daily Kos and elsewhere.

I can't post there right now due to password problems, so someone else has to do it. This needs to be spread around so it can hit the mainstream media.

[iconoclastic cat]

3. I found it on Google news easily. Very few US sources.

This is huge news, and we should find a way to push it.

[pauldp]

5. "al-Qaeda was working in the American interest".

Of course they are, they always have been. They are an intelligence asset manipulated
through Pakistan's ISI.

[noahmijo]

6. Idiots who really thought Iraq would be free...what'd you expect??

You know all these people Saddam tortured? the ones you all of a sudden decided to feel sorry for since it became and still is a primary talking point as to why America had to invade Iraq?

This what they wanted. This is now THEIR Iraq and it will be an Islamic Extremist run hellhole with open season on anyone who doesn't go along with the new Islamic Republic of Iraq.

These are just the facts people. I am not saying it was good that Saddam tortured and had people murdered, but everyone makes it sound like all of the victims were just peaceful people trying to feed their children-not true they wanted another Iran another Syria they largely detested the fact that Iraq was run by a dictator who shit on religion rather he was more concerned with his own tribute.

And now with him gone we have given birth to another nation full of radicals who will govern via "faith" and fear.

Point is Saddam was bad. THIS is far worse and anyone paying attention saw this coming a million miles away from day one....shit even Daddy Bush saw it coming which is why he didn't keep troops in Iraq after Desert Storm.