Al Qaeda's Offensive to Defeat the Hearts and Minds of the American Government

Bill Roggio at his best in Al Qaeda on the Offensive:

Al Qaeda in Iraq has clearly discovered a seam in the increased security inside Baghdad, and is directing its bombing campaign for political and sectarian effects. This bombing blitz is projecting an image of failure of the nascent Baghdad Security Plan. Al Qaeda clearly hopes to destroy any remaining political support inside the U.S. government and the American people for the security operation, which is still in mid deployment.

UPDATE: And The Counterterrorism Blog explains some of the motivation behind the attacks and why they will go on regardless of whether the U.S. withdraws:

Salafi-Jihadist groups in Iraq are not merely interested in ending the occupation and are unlikely to rest their activities if and when the occupation will eventually end. As Zarqawi has made clear before his death, his group was “not fighting to chase the occupier out or preserve national unity or keep borders delineated by the infidel intact. We are fighting because it is a religious duty, just as it is a duty to take Shariah law to the government and create an Islamic state.” Everyone who stands in the way of the establishment of the future Caliphate is a heretic—a kaffir—and must be fought. Hence, Salafi-Jihadists target not only the occupiers, but all those who resist the attempt to create an Islamist super-state ruled in accordance with the strictest Salafi-Jihadist tenets.

Salafi-Jihadist ideology also has an endemic religious quarrel with Shiites, most strikingly expressed by members of Al Qaeda in Iraq. While anti-Shia violence in Iraq is in part instrumental, the origin of the hatred between the Sunni Salafi-Jihadists and Shiites has deeper, doctrinal foundations. Shiism, which was borne out of the succession crisis that followed the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, implies a challenge to the idea that there can be one Sunni caliphate—a core tenet of Salafism. It is for that reasons that Salafi-Jihadists, who are Sunnis, regard Shias as infidels.

"Convert or die" in other words.

UPDATE: I guess Senator Reid is weak enough to have fallen under the sway of few thugs in Iraq:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the war in Iraq is "lost" ..."I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and — you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows — (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday,"

For his brilliant analysis and clever way of supporting the forces in the field, continuing the Democrat strategy of protecting national security by playing politics with it and running away in the face of difficulty, I award an EagleSpeak Dodo award to the Democrat leader of the Senate




Moron.