by Patrick Lang (bio below)
KARBALA, Iraq – Suicide bombers targeted Shiite pilgrims in the south and police recruits in central Iraq Thursday, killing almost 100 people in a stepped-up line of attacks. Thursday’s bombings came a day after insurgents killed 53 people, including 32 killed by a suicide attacker at a Shiite funeral east of Baqouba. The blast near the Imam Hussein shrine in central Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, killed at least 49 people and injured 52, said Karbala police Col. Razaq al-Taie. The site was a scene of chaos with men ferrying the wounded in push carts and pools of blood on the ground. The bomber appeared to have set off the explosion only about 30 yards from the shrine in a busy shopping area. In Ramadi, police and hospital officials said at least 50 people were killed and 40 injured in a suicide attack on a line of police recruits.” Samir N. Yacoub
100 today so far. This begins to sound like an answer to the question I posed yesterday as to whether or not the insurgents and their supporters were going to accept a negotiated but subordinate role in the government being created by the Shia and Kurd winners of last month’s election.
I hear people saying things like, “Well, they will just have to GET OVER IT and learn to live with minority status.” Sorry, but they have another option and that is to continue to wage a terrorist war against us and the Iraqi government in the belief/hope that eventually something will change in the situation and (a) the country will break up and they achieve independence in the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad or (b) they can dominate the same area with lines of communication running out of the region into Sunni run countries. In either case they will, by now, believe that eventually we will leave and that our departure will “level the playing field.”
If the United States leaves a smallish (less than 100K) force in garrisons in country and increases the number and intensity of TACAIR strikes in support of government forces, this will have only a moderate effect on the scenario described above because (1) Our garrisons will become more and more occupied with securing themselves and the embassy and (2) TACAIR in the hands of the Iraqi forces will be a double edged sword, protecting those forces and at the same time adding to the recruiting efforts of the insurgents.
Karbala’s governor, Aqeel al-Khazraji, blamed “takfiris and Saddamists” for the Karbala attack. The takfiri ideology is followed by extremist Sunni Muslims bent on killing anyone considered to be an infidel, even fellow Muslims who disagree with their doctrine. Al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a takfiri. His group has often targeted Shiites. Samir N. Yacoub
I do not know Samir N. Yacoub, but from his name he might be a Christian Arab. If he is a South Asian then he is probably Muslim. I mention that because it is interesting the way he throws the word “takfir” around. This word means something like “heathenizer” or “calling others heathen.” The governor of Karbala is undoubtedly a Shia. I have a question for my learned friends – Do the “takfiris” call themselves that or is this term applied to them by their enemies? I would have thought that they would call themselves something like “Muwahidun” (monotheists).
Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann (interview), CNN and Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room (interview), PBS’s Newshour, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” (interview), and more .
Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005 || Bio || CV
Recommended Books || More BooTrib Posts
Novel: The Butcher’s Cleaver (download free by chapter, PDF format)
“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2
And didn’t i just see a headline somewhere that 7 U.S. soldiers died today?
and two in Najaf.
Does anyone think we’ll see their wailing, anguished loved ones and twenty-four hour news coverage of their deaths?
You mean like the miners’ families?
And certainly not the wailing and grief-stricken faces of the families of the Iraqi dead.
Just not tasteful. (or important)
The troop stand down with 30K is only the troops sent to stablize while the elections were going on, for the most part. The others are there as always, to fight the war. Of course this is just one womans opinion. We are going to stay there forever if this administration has its way with things. I just wonder if the Iraqi’s ahve asked us to leave in secret and they are now trying to figure out a way to do it with the meeting of the heads of state involved with another diary. Geez, bush cant leave without looking victorous now can he??!!!
Pat Lang Said: “Sorry, but they have another option and that is to continue to wage a terrorist war against us and the Iraqi government “
People are using the word terrorist and insurgent interchangeably. Do you think the U.S. is fighting terrorist or insurgents? Do you think the “suicidde bombers” are Iraqis?
Are these really suicide bombers? Could it be they are bombs set off by remote control or other means and the U.S. reports them as “suicide bombers” more often than not…as it helps scare people.
Funny that none of these “suicide bombers” ever comes to the United States. I am willing to be that these are not suicide bombers. Just bombers, bombing.
Why be a suicide bomber? THis is not like the situation in Israel at all as far as access is concerned or even appearance.
Anyone who opposes or resists US policies, foreign or domestic, is a terrorist, an evildoer who hates freedom.
Those who suggest that attacks against pilgrims sound a bit sparkly, or that attacks against collaborators might be seen in the US itself if Malaysia, or Iraq, or Belgium were to invade and occupy America, are simply terrorist sympathizers spouting terrorist propaganda.
For those interested, here is a snip from Maudoodi’s famous piece:
Do the “takfiris” call themselves that or is this term applied to them by their enemies?
i’m still just a student of the arabic language, but i’ve only heard the word “takfir” used against someone who the speaker doesn’t like. it’s hard to imagine a muslim identifying themselves as a “takfiri”, especially since arabic already has a built in system for active and passive participles. it would seem more natural to say something like “mukfir” (مكفِر) i.e. the active participle of the form IV verb (which would roughly reanslate as “the one who makes/calls others an infidel”).
for what it’s worth hans wehr defines “takfir” as: expiation, atonement, penance, seduction to indelity, charge of unbelief.
i don’t see anything similar to how yacoub uses the word
Frontline had a program that touched on the phenomenon of Takfir. Here’s Dr. Mamoud Fandy:
And here’s an exerpt from an essay called “The Salafist Movement”:
FWIW
The Takfir stamp are of course used by the Iraqi authorities against the insurgents/terrorists on its enemies because it indicates that these people are not of the Muslim faith. People like al-Zarqawi and other salafist jihadists would refer to themselves as Tawhidis, (true believers in one God and one prophet – Monotheists/Unifiers – look at the name of al-Zarqawis group in Iraq – Jama’at at-Tawhid wal-Jihad), another popular term often used is Salafists. Their aim is to unify Islam into one Ummah (religious community) and all deviations from this stringent interpretation is believed legitimate targets in their holy war for the unification of Islam that is why Shiites as well as Sunnis of different opinion than their own are targeted.
Mrblifil comment is pretty informative on the subject.