Enemy #1: The Mukhabarat...Zarqawi Is Just a Front!

In a fast-paced country, like the US, many tend to categorize or simplify complex concepts into single phrases and words. However, this gives individuals such as Osama bin Laden and Zarqawi all of the credit and publicity, when in fact they are mere pawns in this enigmatic game of chess between: the US versus the Mukhabarat and Saddam Hussein, along with the radical Islamists.

According to Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball in Newsweek, the Mukhabarat(Intelligence) of Saddam Hussein is even MORE of a threat to the US and Iraq, than radical Islamists such as Zarqawi and bin Laden, who are considered to be acting more as "Saddam's Surrogates." So basically, Zarqawi makes headlines while the Mukhabarat does most of the 'dirty work.'

Similarily, despite his controversial reputation, Scott Ritter's article on "The risks of the al-Zarqawi myth" gives a very interesting perspective:

"According to former Iraqi intelligence personnel I have communicated with recently, the Mukhabarat, under instructions from Saddam Hussein, had been preparing for some time before the invasion of Iraq on how to survive, resist and defeat any US-led occupation of Iraq. A critical element of this resistance was to generate chaos and anarchy that would destabilise any US-appointed Iraqi government."

Furthermore, "The Mukhabarat was desperate for a way to divert attention from the fact that it was behind the attacks against Iraqi civilians. Iraqis killing Iraqis would turn the public against the resistance. It needed a foreign face, and al-Zarqawi provided it. A few planted CD disks later, and the al-Zarqawi myth was born."

The Mukhabarat are willing to do whatever it takes, which includes killing their own people(no surprise there, for Saddam Hussein)and fueling the radical Islamist movement, in order to maintain control of Iraq. They could care less about Islam and as to how many thousands of people die in the process. The only two things they care about are themselves and power.

In light of this article, I would hope that we could all agree that the capture of Saddam Hussein was in fact justified, whether he had Weapons of Mass Destruction(WMD) or not. In fact, we should begin to really redefine what is considered to be a WMD, because the Mukhabarat seems to be just that.

Round one goes to Saddam Hussein and the Mukhabarat, for allowing us to believe that WMD's could only be in metallic or chemical form! THAT is why we could not find any in Iraq.

However, a message to Saddam Hussein, the Mukhabarat, and radical Islamists (who think that they are so clever, and who could care less about human life): You may have won A battle, but you will NOT win the war.