Saturday May 26, 2007

I've Been Thinking:

A car bomb exploded at a funeral in Iraq yesterday.
24 mourners were killed.
Al Qaeda was sending a message, al Qaeda was targeting other Sunni Muslims.

Usually, al Qaeda just targets Shiites and Western forces.
The reasons are obvious.
Sunnis are the natural allies of al Qaeda.

So why did this happen? There is a simple answer.
This was the funeral of a 60 year old sheik, Sheik Alaa Zuwaid.
Sheikh Alaa Zuwaid was organizing anti-al Qaeda movements.
The Sheikh began his campaign after his 25 year old son was caught in the crossfire of infighting and killed as he walked down the street last month.
Since then he had been trying to get as many Sunni leaders as he could persuade to stand up and reject al Qaeda.
The al Qaeda response was to murder Sheikh Alaa Zuwaid and to attack his funeral.

Internal tensions are emerging in Iraq.
Significant forces are starting to show disgust with al Qaeda.
That is good, very good.