( Update: From AP: "Although the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the document was found in al-Zarqawi's hideout following a June 7 airstrike that killed him, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the document had in fact been found in a previous raid as part of an ongoing three-week operation to track al-Zarqawi. 'We can verify that this information did come off some kind of computer asset that was at a safe location,' he said. 'This was prior to the al-Zarqawi safe house.'") Iraq's national security advisor has released the purported text of a document, found in the Zarqawi safe house that was blasted by the U.S. Air Force, calling for a review of the "current bleak situation" in Iraq. In it, al Qaeda in Iraq views the continued presence of American forces as "harmful to the resistance."
As an overall picture, time has been an element in affecting negatively the forces of the occupying countries, due to the losses they sustain economically in human lives, which are increasing with time. However, here in Iraq, time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance….
In other words, the fact that America hasn't "cut and run" has dealt a blow to al Qaeda's plans for Iraq. Why is the American presence "harmful to the resistance"?
- By allowing the American forces to form the forces of the National Guard, to reinforce them and enable them to undertake military operations against the resistance. 2. By undertaking massive arrest operations, invading regions that have an impact on the resistance, and hence causing the resistance to lose many of its elements. 3. By undertaking a media campaign against the resistance resulting in weakening its influence inside the country and presenting its work as harmful to the population rather than being beneficial to the population. 4. By tightening the resistance's financial outlets, restricting its moral options and by confiscating its ammunition and weapons. 5. By creating a big division among the ranks of the resistance and jeopardizing its attack operations, it has weakened its influence and internal support of its elements, thus resulting in a decline of the resistance's assaults. 6. By allowing an increase in the number of countries and elements supporting the occupation or at least allowing to become neutral in their stand toward us in contrast to their previous stand or refusal of the occupation. 7. By taking advantage of the resistance's mistakes and magnifying them in order to misinform.
Because the Americans won't exit, the document suggests trying "to entangle the American forces into another war against another country [Iran] or with another of our enemy force…" to take the pressure off the terror group. Al Qaeda's desire to get U.S. forces out of Iraq was highlighted last July in Zawahiri's letter to Zarqawi. "The first stage," he wrote, is to "expel the Americans from Iraq." He also counseled Zarqawi to be prepared because,
things may develop faster than we imagine. The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam-and how they ran and left their agents-is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us, and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void behind them. We must take the initiative and impose a fait accompli upon our enemies, instead of the enemy imposing one on us, wherein our lot would be to merely resist their schemes.
Those who oppose Democratic demands for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq should highlight the above during debate on the House and Senate floor and in the media. As William Kristol has noted: let's not "give Zarqawi a victory in death that he could not achieve in life."