Al-Qaida: the unwanted guests - Very good article from Le Monde

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

It shows how the Great Bogeyman Al-Qaida has it's own problems despite BushCo's attempts to paint the insurgences in Iraq and Afghanistan as monolithic.

http://mondediplo.com/2007/07/02al-qaida

[bryant69]

1. Interesting article - but I suspect any analysis past "Terrorists are bad"

is not favored by this administration.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Simple minded analyses for simpletons is a hallmark of this administration.

"Bring it on", "Mission Accomplished", "Smoke 'em out", etc. A government of Bumper Sticker diplomacy.

[Igel]

3. You've obviously missed the NYT's and al-Maliki's

moaning about how the US has been giving guns and training to Sunni Arab Iraqis that were probably shooting to kill Americans a year ago as part of the campaign to fight insurgents. It's worked fairly well in west Anbar where the number of 'incidents' reported by the military have dropped by 75% in the last 5 or 6 months and the majority of remaining incidents are minor. There are some pretty spectacular bombings--but car bombs are cheap tricks, bloody tricks, to be sure, but cheap; 10 people and five cars in one area can produce 5 spectacular and scattered attacks. The campaign's worked less well in east Anbar, but the ethnic picture there is more complicated and society's a bit more fragmented.

And you've missed how the 1920 Revolution Brigade in Baquba has been fighting with the US, not against the US. The military's made a big deal out of it.

And I was just reading today how a bunch of Pashtuns from one of the Waziristans is negotiating on behalf of the government to get the militants there to settle down again, and that would include a fair number of AQ supporters. But that was in the MSM.

I just don't see the "insurgency is monolithic" campaign.

But the article you linked to was pretty good.