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Friday, July 1, 2005

Losing Hearts and Minds

Strategy Page reveals al Zarqawi's plan for winning hearts and minds in Iraq:

Suicide bombers have largely been foreigners. As Iraqis are quick to point out, Iraqis are not into this sort of thing. Neither are the foreigners any more, many of them refusing to undertake missions that just kill Iraqi civilians. So more and more suicide bombers are not volunteers, but men kidnapped and told to carry out the mission, or see family members killed. The bodies of car bombers have been found handcuffed to the steering wheel. Many suicide car bombers have dual detonation systems, one under the control of the driver, another under the control of a distant "supervisor," ready to set the bomb off if the suicide bomber is seen to get confused, or tries to get away from his fate.

The sage thinkers at Move On.org insist we get out of Iraq now and let the chips fall where they may. Where they'd fall, of course, is right into the lap of the people who have no qualms about threatening someone's family unless he kills himself along with a slew of innocent children. Move On doesn't seem to care, though. It's easy to blow the trumpet for retreat, of course, when it's not one's own friends and family that will be targeted for death.