News from Under a Rock in Pakistan

That sunny bluebird of happiness, Ayman al Zawahiri, has emerged from hiding to distribute yet another recorded fulmination against the United States in general and President Bush and the war in Iraq in particular. He lets us know that, "If you want to live in security, you must accept the facts of what is happening on the ground, and reject the fantasies with which Bush tries to deceive you."

Amazingly enough, I have finally found something on which I can tentatively agree with a bigoted, hectoring moron like Mr al Zawahiri - that we should reject the fantasies with which our government has tried to deceive us. Of course, Mr al Zawahiri has failed to note that the President has finally - however belatedly - accepted that all is not well in Iraq, that everyone knows it, and that a change in strategy and tactics is needed. But I think that Mr al Zawahiri's call for "(acceptance of) the facts of what is happening on the ground" works both ways.

The ghastly sectarian violence that is tearing Iraq apart really got underway when al Qaeda in Iraq (the local franchise of Mr al Zawahiri's peace-loving and God-fearing organization) bombed the Shiite shrine in Samarra. Thus, "the facts of what is happening on the ground" have been shaped as much by the religious hatreds inflamed by Mr al Zawahiri as by our own actions. While we have made serious mistakes in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, a dispassionate look at "the facts of what is happening on the ground" would show that the US and its meager handful of allies have tried to repair Iraq and return it to a functioning society...whereas the Mr al Zawahiri and his allies have done nothing to help the situation, and everything to fan the hatreds that have turned Iraq into hell on earth for its suffering people.

Sadly, most of the Muslim world will uncritically accept whatever someone like al Zawahiri or Muqtada al Sadr says, simply because he's one of their own. They'll accept the hatred and bigotry that flows in the guise of religious pronouncements, and they'll ignore the responsibility of Mr al Zawahiri and his fellow Islamists for bringing so much misery to the people of Iraq and the larger Middle East. Instead, they'll do what they've always done: place the blame for every wrong on those useful whipping boys, the US and Israel.

So, Mr al Zawahiri, please crawl back under your rock and let the people of Iraq solve their problems without your help. And stay there. No one needs a useless bigot like you.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo