Outside the Beltway

The People Have Spoken …

Leopold Stotch · Monday, January 31, 2005 · 3 comments

… but the message falls on deaf ears:

Al Qaeda Vows to Fight on in Iraq

Al Qaeda Islamist militants denounced the historic elections Sunday as an “American game” but leaders around the world hailed the vote as an unexpected success, regardless of whether they had supported or opposed the U.S.-led war in 2003. …

But the al Qaeda group in Iraq, whose leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had threatened voters with death in a bid to wreck the election, said it would pursue its war against U.S.-led occupying forces and Iraqis working with them.

“We in the al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq will continue the jihad until the banner of Islam flutters over Iraq,” said the statement posted on an Islamist Web site.

Yesterday I commented that what Zarqawi (a Jordanian) doesn’t get is that a majority of the Iraqi people see his insurgency as more anti-Iraqi than anti-American, and I believe that he has truly overplayed his hand. I expect that he’ll seek his own “exit strategy” by the end of the year.

Oh, and for them to call free and fair elections an “American game” betrays just how primative their ideology is, although sadly it does show solidarity with Daily Kos readers.