Iraq II: Militant Islamists Triumphant?

Iraqi Rocky Horror Picture Show

No one in their right mind would have claimed that the death in June of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda's head honcho in Iraq, in an air strike was anything more than a small victory in a larger war against the terrorists who poured into the country when the U.S. occupation came a cropper.

Nevertheless, the in-your-face declaration of a new Islamic republic in western and central Iraq by Al Qaeda and Sunni insurgent groups coupled with the slaughter of over 80 Iraqis in Balad on Saturday and continuing sectarian violence in Tigris River towns since then is a reminder that for every small step forward there likely will be a step back.

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Meanwhile, Iraqis are asking why the U.S. forces at Camp Anaconda, a huge base near the site of the slaughter, didn't intervene.

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Meanwhile meanwhile, Bill Roggio blogs on what he semi-facetiously calls The Rump Islamic Emirate of Iraq.

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