Acting In One's Own Self Interest

By Douglas Farah

One thing about extremist groups, particularly those that are based on religion, is that their members so believe that they are the exclusive possessors of the truth that they almost inevitably go to far, especially if they have power.

The alienation of the civilian population they are supposed to be converting or saving eventually grows so great that the groups' existence is threatened.

This seem to be the case of Al Qaeda-linked forces in Iraq. An extraordinary Washington Post story today provides a look into the disarray among the groups, who are now trying to soften their bloody image in order to regain a modicum of popular support.

Without that support, the ability of these groups to operate in virtually any populated area is considerably diminished. Terrorizing people by killing people they love is a useful tactic for a period of time, but only until people lose their fear. That clearly happened when the Anbar chiefs and others broke from the Islamists and accepted U.S. money and weapons to change sides.

While not calling for the end of killing Shiite Muslims, the groups are seeking to win back some level of support among the Sunni chiefs, who in effect switched sides when the abuses by the insurgents grew to be too much.

The result of the abuses (and why one of the principal goals of the new commanders in Iraq was to reduce civilian deaths), the Islamists have been very badly hurt. One can only hope that their efforts to adapt do not lead long to their survival. My full blog is here.

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