Zarawi and Tatarrus: The news of the wounding of Zarqawi coincided with my reading of the text of his recent long 90-minutes speech that was issued only a few days ago. A kooky Bin Ladenite website has asked readers to pray (mother of all prayers, they want) to cure him. But if prayers save, prophets, popes, and saints would have been immortal. Don't they know. I know. Everybody should know. But reading the text of the speech underline this: US' (and the occupation apparatus') problem is far beyond the person of Zarqawi. This is going to be like the capture of Saddam (who still has fans in Jordan for some reason), and the American official and media expectations that all will be well for occupation afterwards. All will not be well for foreign occupation, no matter what. And the practice AND ideology of Zarqawi ensured that his enemies will only grow, and they will be far beyond the occupation soldiers, and far beyond the Shi`ite community. This was a man whose deeds entailed daily killing of scores of civilians. And reading the long text of the speech, you realize that he knows that he has a serious Muslim PR problem. The entire speech was very defensive in tone--even for Zarqawi, especially for Zarqawi, and thoroughly documented and footnoted (in Islamic jurisprudential sources) which tells me that he may be getting serious library help. Could it be the Islamic `Ulama' Grouping of Harith Adh-Dhari? I do not know. Just speculating. The speech is full of bizarre justifications and rationalizations for the murder of innocent Muslim Iraqis--he appranetly does not feel the need to justify the killing of the others that he kills--at the hands of his group. He drew upon sources to argue for the right to kill fellow Muslim civilians during tatarrus? (meaning, the use of Muslim as shields by the enemy). But could the very notion of tatarrus not be used to justify the killing of Iraqi civilians by occupation army? Zarqawi's tatarrus is the Arabic term for what the Pentagon calls "collateral damage." How similar counterpropagandas are sometimes in justification of violence, indiscriminate violence at that. Also, in times of war and civil strife, hardcore criminals and murderers make their way into militias and organizations and prosper. I saw that in the Lebanese civil war. Zarqawi is one of those. He would probably would be a serial killer in regular times. He AND the occupation authority bear the full responsibility for the killing and mayhem in Iraq. Make no mistake about it. Also, the diatribe against Shi`ites, ALL SHI`ITES, continues in this speech. They are equated with infidels. That anti-Shi`ite rhetoric only helped to rally all Iraqi Shi`ites against his movement and its murderous deeds. But the war of words between Harith Adh-Dhari and `Abdul-`Aziz Al-Hakim will have wider consequences; the signs of Sunni Shi`ite mini-civil wars are there. Occupation practices have only aggravated the tensions. And if Iraqis watch Lebanese TV stations (especially LBC-TV) they will really learn the skills and methods of sectarian sedition.