Iraq and Afghanistan

The interviews with the two French journalists who were held for several months by the Islamic Army of Iraq is enlightening. They seem to have beeen a mixed group of Baathists, former army and Jihadists with some training in Afghanistan. They claimed they were not the same group as Zarqawi's, but that they worked with them at times. The reporters noted that their captors seem well supplied with both money and weapons. They were amazed at how easily their captors were able to move through the countryside and towns both north and south of Baghdad. They were not all bin Ladenists, but some were. And their objectives are similar to his, except for the particular Iraqi aspects. They saw bin Laden as wanting to overthrow the Egyptian and Saudi regimes, defeat the Americans in Iraq, drive a wedge between the United States and Europe, recreate an Arab Caliphate (remember the last Caliphate was actually Turkish), and carry out a long-term war with the West, but a war seen as essentially defensive.