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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 26-Jul-07
Iraq: Suicide bombers interrupt celebrations in Baghdad over soccer win

Web Log - July, 2007

Iraq: Suicide bombers interrupt celebrations in Baghdad over soccer win

Iraq's stunning 4-3 soccer victory over South Korea in the Asia Cup semi-final puts it one game away from their greatest soccer achievement ever.

Minutes after the Iraq team clinched victory in the tense, nail-biting game, thousands of people began streaming out into the streets of Baghdad and other cities throughout the country, celebrating the victory. Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds all celebrated together, screaming with joy and jubilation.

However, the Baghdad celebrations were interrupted by two suicide car bombers who blew themselves up in the middle of the celebrating crowds, killing 50 and wounding 100 more.

Not surprisingly, the BBC on Wednesday led with the bombings, emphasizing the blood and gore. (Last week, the BBC newscast carried a 20-minute segment on bodies in the Tigris River, and described in precise detail how the police cut up the body, examine the stomach contents, and so forth. I would have thought that was over the top even for the BBC, but apparently I was wrong.)

The BBC played down the unity of the Iraqis, and played up the sectarian violence and so-called "civil war" aspect. The BBC blamed the suicide bombings on "the Sunnis," without mentioning al-Qaeda in Iraq.

I've been very critical of journalists and politicians because of their sheer stupidity and ignorance. This was shown by articles in the Congressional Quarterly. Washington journalists, analysts and politicians have no idea what's going on in Iraq. They don't know the differences between Sunni and Shi'ite, and up until recently they didn't know that al-Qaeda is operating in Iraq, or that al-Qaeda is a Sunni organization.

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Stock markets in Iraq and Iran are surging.: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says "it is the end of capitalism."... (17-Oct-2008)
On "60 Minutes," Bob Woodward makes ridiculous claims about Iraq.: He says the surge succeeded because of some magic new military technique.... (7-Sep-2008)
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Iraq: Suicide bombers interrupt celebrations in Baghdad over soccer win: Iraq's stunning 4-3 soccer victory over South Korea in the Asia Cup semi-final... (26-Jul-07)
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The chaotic Iraq election is only two days away: The election is on Sunday, January 30, and no one has a clue what's going to happen.... (28-Jan-05)
Brent Scowcroft predicts an "incipient civil war" for Iraq: Pundits are returning to wishful thinking as the January 30 election approaches... (09-Jan-05)
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Iraq Today vs 1960s America (Revised): They have much in common: Bombings, assassinations, student demonstrations, violent riots, calls for insurrection and civil war and harsh rhetoric. That's much more than a coincidence. (8-May-2004)
What Iraqi Civil War?: Early in 2003, I predicted that there would be no popular uprising against the Americans, and that there would be no civil war. After the overthrow of Saddam, I said that an Iraqi civil war was impossible. Despite the constant near-hysteria of the politicians, journalists and high-priced analysts, I've been right so far. Here's why. (09-Apr-04)
Anti-Shi'ite Terror Attacks in Iraq, Pakistan: So far, Sunni and Shi'ite leaders in Iraq aren't taking the bait. (2-Mar-04)
Terrorist suicide bombings in Iraq may backfire against terrorists: During an awakening period, terrorist acts cause masses of people to shrink from more violence. (19-Aug-03)

And Lawrence Kaplan, a senior editor at the liberal, pro-Democratic opinion magazine, The New Republic, wrote an article entitled "Congressional leaders are illiterate on Iraq," in which he basically reached the following conclusions about the Democrats in Congress: They're morons; they go out of their way to avoid learning anyting; they make up any "fact" they want as they go along, since they don't know anything; and they couldn't care less what happens in Iraq, since they just want votes.

And yet little ol' me, sitting in my apartment in Framingham -- I've known since 2004 that al-Qaeda was operating in Iraq, through Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. I've written about it many times since then.

When I wrote my comprehensive analysis, "Iraqi Sunnis are turning against al-Qaeda in Iraq," a few months ago, most journalists and politicians still were completely clueless about al-Qaeda in Iraq, even though Muslim sources were loaded with reporting on it.

The reason is because they assume that the Iraq war is just a replay of the Vietnam war in every detail. Actually the two wars have almost nothing in common, but the journalists and politicians are too stupid to figure that out.

Instead they call it a civil war simply because the Vietnam War was a civil war. I've explained dozens of times why the Iraq war is NOT a civil war and can't be a civil war, as you can see from the adjacent "related articles" box. But it makes no difference.

Things have changed in the last few weeks, because various military reports and intelligence estimates have been emphasizing al-Qaeda in Iraq. It's nothing that you didn't already know if you've been reading this web site, but now it's come to the attention of the politicians and mainstream journalists, and they have to deal with it.

It's been particularly galling to the New York Times. Incredibly, they refuse to acknowledge its existence, and the editors have distributed a secret internal memo telling its people to call it "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia," rather than "al-Qaeda in Iraq." It's as if we're dealing with a bunch of petulant teenage girls instead of a major newspaper.

However, Wednesday's news about the celebrations after the soccer game shows how absurd the mainstream media explanation is. Sunnis and Shiites and Kurds were out in the streets celebratring together. People who hate each other and have civil wars with each other don't do that.


Shada Hassoun
Shada Hassoun

Also, this wasn't a unique event. Just two months ago, there was similar revelry among united Iraqis when sentimental Iraqi pop singer Shada Hassoun won the Arab "Idol" contest. Go back to that article and watch the video of Shada again. She's wonderful.

So, as I've written many times, the politicians and reporters have no idea what's going on in Iraq.

In the article that I wrote several months ago, I showed how Iraqis, including Sunni Iraqis, were turning against al-Qaeda in Iraq. Why? You can see why on Wednesday. There are no Iraqi suicide bombers, so the suicide car bombers that destroyed the revelry on Wednesday were foreigners, probably from Saudi Arabia, recruited by al-Qaeda. And they killed Iraqis -- ordinary Iraqi men, women and children. Why wouldn't the Iraqis turn against that? The claim that this can't be a civil war is obvious to everyone except the petulant teenage girls at the BBC, the NY Times, and, of course, in Congress.

Another dispute going on today is whether "al-Qaeda in Iraq" is really "al-Qaeda." President Bush says they're the same organization, and the Democrats say that the two organizations are completely unrelated to each other.

The truth is in the middle, but it's not even an important question. Al-Qaeda is turning into a kind of public relations "brand name" for Sunni Muslim terrorist groups stretching around the world from southeast Asia to the Mideast to the Mahgreb (North Africa) and up to Spain and France and Russia. Even if Osama bin Laden is not running al-Qaeda in Iraq, they communicate and share knowledge and resources. It makes absolutely no difference whether you call them the same group or different groups, because the effect is the same.

In fact, there's apparently a clear generational different between "bin Laden's al-Qaeda" and al-Qaeda in Iraq. A fascinating story came out of Yemen recently about the suicide bombings that killed Spaniards and Yemenis a few weeks ago in Yemen. An older al-Qaeda operative, now in custody, was insisting that the bombing was NOT the work of bin Laden's al-Qaeda, but rather was perpetrated by a bunch of younger generation al-Qaeda newbies who really don't know what they're doing. "The new generation is not the generation of Osama Bin Laden, it is the generation of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, which is different from Al Qaeda, although the word al-Qaeda is used by some groups." Unfortunately, the article doesn't give enough details, but it's a juicy story anyway.

But it doesn't matter because they're both terrorist groups sharing resources with a number of common objectives. Two of the most important of these common objectives are (1) high-profile terrorist attacks on American soil, and (2) sparking an "Islamist revolution" in Pakistan or wherever it can be one, like the 1979 Islamist revolution in Iran.

This has been especially apparent since new hostilities broke out in Pakistan between government forces and al-Qaeda, resulting in an increasing level of conflict growing between Americans and Pakistanis. (26-Jul-07) Permanent Link
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