Top U.S. Military Intel Officer: Zarqawi "Hijacked" Insurgency

By Evan Kohlmann

Today's Washington Post carries a long overdue concession from U.S. military intelligence: that "Saddamists" and former regime officials play little--if any--role in the ongoing Sunni insurgency in central Iraq.  In fact, according to Army Major General Richard Zahner:

"I think what you really have here is an insurgency that's been hijacked by a terrorist campaign... In part, by Zarqawi becoming the face of this thing, he has certainly gotten the funding, the media and, frankly, has allowed other folks to work along in his draft... You'll see some of the old regime elements on [the list of most-wanted insurgents in Iraq], mainly just to maintain pressure and, frankly, accountability.  But when you look at those individuals central to the inflicting of huge amounts of violence, it really is not those folks."

One would hope that the media pays close attention to Zahner's remarks.  There is an unfortunate and inexplicable reluctance among some analysts to accept the weighty role that Zarqawi and his foreign fighters have taken in the Iraqi insurgency--take, for instance, a Christian Science Monitor piece from last weekend with the presumptuous headline, "The 'myth' of Iraq's foreign fighters."  The real myth about the "resistance" in Iraq is that somehow it is the exclusive domain of ex-Saddamists and Iraqi nationalists. 

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