Spencer Ackerman, on the growing Iraqi disgust with Zarqawi:
In March, for instance, Iraqi insurgents kidnapped and killed a Zarqawist crew. And when Zarqawi recently staged a march in Ramadi to say he was the boss, a number of locals bristled to reporters. Anti-Zarqawi sentiment has also manifested in Sunni cities like Falluja and Latifiyah. It's a reassuring sign that the more Iraqis (and Arabs generally) get to know Al Qaeda, the more they want to kidnap and shoot its operatives. Good job there, Zarqawi.
All of this has two larger implications. First, Bush is wrong to say that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would "hand Iraq over to enemies who have pledged to attack us"--meaning Zarqawi, since Bush correctly seeks to draw the other Sunni insurgents into the political process. Not only would Al Qaeda fail to dominate the Shia south and the Kurdish north, there are increasing indications that the Sunni center-west wouldn't tolerate Zarqawi, either. That's very good news for us. Second, and relatedly, just because Sunnis are growing to hate Zarqawi doesn't mean they're growing to love the U.S. or the Iraqi political process we sponsor. Exploiting any Sunni-Zarqawi split requires far more political inclusion than the Shia and Kurdish leadership has so far been willing to provide (sometimes reasonably so). It also probably requires taking away the cardinal reason why Sunni insurgents and Al Qaeda have been able to find common cause: our presence in Iraq.
