PrintDecember 7, 2005
Zarqawi and People's War
The way the media plays it, you'd think Abu Musab al—Zarqawi was the greatest Muslim strategist since Saladin. Every car bomb is a Jacob's Ford, every massacre a Hattin every move a masterstroke against the clumsy and inept Crusaders. He makes no errors and suffers no setbacks, and his victory, when it inevitably comes to pass, will be well—earned. This interpretation of events has become the conventional wisdom, so widespread and ingrained as to excite no comment whatsoever (even some conservative voices have joined this chorus), despite the fact that it's next to impossible to discern any strategy, method, or pattern behind Zarqawi's activities beyond the urge to kill as many people as brutally as possible. The optimum strategy for carrying out an insurrection against a superior force, whether occupiers or legitimate authority, has been understood for the better part of a century. The man to be thanked for that is Mao Tse Tung, the only begetter of the...(Read Full Article)
