Al-Qaida's deputy leader sought to bolster the terror network's main arm in Iraq in a new video released Thursday, calling on Muslims to rally behind it at a time when the group is on the defensive, faced with U.S. offensives and splits with other insurgent groups.
Ayman al-Zawahri defended the Islamic State of Iraq — the insurgent umbrella group headed by al-Qaida — against critics among Islamic militant groups, saying it was a vanguard for fighting off the U.S. military and eventually establishing a "caliphate" of Islamic rule across the region.
Al-Zawahri, the top deputy of Osama bin Laden, called on Muslims to follow a two-pronged strategy: work at home to topple "corrupt" Arab regimes and join al-Qaida's "jihad," or holy war, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia to fight and train "to prepare for the next jihad."
But he forgot one of his talking points by admitting that al Qaeda is fighting in Iraq. Oh, and he linked the Iraq fight to Afghanistan. Doesn't Zawahri know that Afghanistan is the "good" war?The left here doesn't like to hear this stuff. But that's another story.
I find it interesting that Zawahri needs to call upon Moslems to wage jihad:
Al-Qaida's deputy chief called on all Muslims to join the holy war against the West.
"May Allah pluck out your eye if you haven't yet seen that jihad is an individual duty," the transcript quoted al-Zawahri as saying.
Aren't Moslems already obligated to wage jihad? What's with the new call, Zawi boy?
The Moslem Street just isn't what it used to be. It seems that a promise of 72 virgins in the afterlife isn't enough of an inducement to sign up for the jihad, so some earthly eye-gouging was tossed in to motivate the reluctant.
It's almost enough to make you think we aren't distracted by the Iraq fight, but that the Iraq fight is actually contributing to the destruction of al Qaeda!
Actually, I think al Qaeda is distracted by the fight in Iraq. Toppling corrupt regimes in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, not to mention killing Jews, Americans, and other infidels, seems to have taken a back seat to killing Shia Arabs in Iraq.
But we're there in force to make that approach far more fatal for the jihadi cannon fodder. And killing their idiot jihadis all over the place. We don't limit ourselves to putting an eye out.
If the Iraq War has inspired countless young Moslems to wage war on America, why does Zawahri need to urge Moslems to joing the jihad--and threaten them to do so?
