Yesterday's Opinion Journal carried a column by Ahmed Chalabi who says the violence in Iraq is sectarian rather than religious.
Iraq is not the new frontier in a holy war. The terrorists, hiding under an Islamic banner, are the real perpetrators of sectarianism in Iraq. They are seriously undermining everyone, particularly the Sunni community that they claim to represent. The ideological drive is distinctly Baathist. Saddam's regime excelled at sectarianism and ethnic discrimination, and that is what the insurgents desire today--to push Iraq into a sectarian civil war. They are the ones attacking mosques and churches and hospitals. They do not stand up for the rights of Sunni Iraqis, but merely for their own interests, of absolute totalitarian rule. Using a manipulative language of skewed religious metaphors and nationalist symbols, they lobby Iraq's Sunnis to join them in their violence. Co-existence and consensus-building are abhorrent to Baathists. Their logic is very simple, if they are not in power, then Iraq should not exist. Those still fighting for a return to Saddam's Iraq are incapable of practicing healthy competitive politics, of participating in a legitimate process of nation-building.
For a bit of persective here is an excerpt from the Zarqawi letter to Bin Laden
With strong media guidance from the Governing Council and the Americans, they have been able to come between the Sunni masses and the mujahidin. I give an example that brings the matter close to home in the area called the Sunni Triangle -- if this is the right name for it. The army and police have begun to deploy in those areas and are growing stronger day by day. They have put chiefs [drawn] from among Sunni agents and the people of the land in charge. In other words, this army and police may be linked to the inhabitants of this area by kinship, blood, and honor. In truth, this area is the base from which we set out and to which we return. When the Americans disappear from these areas – and they have begun to do so – and these agents, who are linked by destiny to the people of the land, take their place, what will our situation be?
If we fight them {and we must fight them}, we will confront one of two things. Either:
1 – We fight them, and this is difficult because of the gap that will emerge between us and the people of the land. How can we fight their cousins and their sons and under what pretext after the Americans, who hold the reins of power from their rear bases, pull back? The real sons of this land will decide the matter through experience. Democracy is coming, and there will be no excuse thereafter.
2 – We pack our bags and search for another land, as is the sad, recurrent story in the arenas of jihad, because our enemy is growing stronger and his intelligence data are increasing day by day.
We have both forces at work, the Islamists and the Baathists, with the Baathists in control at the moment, using the Islamists for leverage. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is in effect. If against all odds the suicide/murder bombings should work and democracy fails in Iraq, Iraq will not become the Islamic theocracy Zarqawi yearns for. The Baathists will be in power and the Islamists will be stamped out like bugs by the new Saddam, whoever he may turn out to be. But none of that is going to happen.
Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi weighs in with a column on today's Opinion Journal. I believe his determination and the determination of the Iraqis and the Americans will carry the day.
Ballots will prove far more powerful than bullets in the end, and the will of the peaceful majority of Iraqis will triumph over the terror tactics of a hateful few. To this mission, I and my colleagues from the Interim Government pledge ourselves, and we call upon the governments and citizens of our allies in the international community and our neighbors in the region to do their utmost to support Iraq at this critical juncture. A free and secure Iraq will be a victory for all peace-loving people, and we Iraqis face a historic opportunity that we shall not squander.
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