Saudis Support a Jihad in Iraq, Not Back Home
In Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally of the United States, violence against the occupation in Iraq is seen by many as jihad, or a holy struggle, but virtually no one accepts violence as jihad when it unrolls here at home, in the heart of what is supposed to be the most Muslim of countries.
In Iraq, attacks by American troops serve as evidence to some that the United States occupation of a Muslim land must be reversed. Requests for God to avenge American actions pour down from mosque minarets, and some women university students sport Osama bin Laden T-shirts under their enveloping abayas to show their approval for his calls to resist the United States.
But many Saudis consider the attack here on Wednesday a shocking and unsettling crime, especially since the attackers chose for their first major government target an office building that virtually every adult male must visit to collect a license or car plates.
Meanwhile Juan Cole reports that the situation in Najaf remains tense, with divisions in CPA leadership complicating the tasks at hand:
"Senior officers say the order to attack Najaf will be made "at the very highest levels of the U.S. government," an indication that President Bush may have the final word on whether soldiers here fight, or keep on waiting. '
Another reason for which the decision must be made by the President is the severe divisions in the US establishment in Iraq. Civil administrator Paul Bremer is said to have vehement and frequent disagreements with Gen. Rick Sanchez of CENTCOM.
There are also rumors that Bush himself made the decision that Fallujah would have to be massively punished for the desecration of the bodies of the US private soldiers of fortune killed there, and that Gen. John Abizaid strongly agreed.
That decision backfired badly from a political point of view, both in Iraq and the region, and the British in particular have signalled hard that it is time for the US to negotiate.
All this while our long-term friend Chalabi chafes at the decision to review the Baathist ban in Iraq:
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This policy will create major problems in the transition to democracy, endanger any government put together by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and cause it to fall after June 30," Chalabi told Reuters.
"This is like allowing Nazis into the German government immediately after World War Two," said Chalabi, who heads a council committee purging the administration of the upper ranks of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
Someone needs to tell Chalabi about Godwin's Law. And get Bremer and Sanchez on the same page. And talk to the Saudis. And make a decision about Fallujah. And tell the President what it is.
Isn't that Condi's job?