Saddam Hussein loyalists who violently opposed January elections have made an about-face as Thursday's polls near, urging fellow Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al Qaeda militants not to attack.
In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Sunni insurgents defending Iraq voters from Zarqawi's terrorists? I know that gradually more and more Sunnis have opted to involve themselves in the democratic process in Iraq, but nonetheless this development is a little surprising. Of course not all Sunnis are as enthusiastic about the process. But for insurgents loyal to Saddam in Anbar, one of the hottest spots of the insurgency, to support elections is an extremely welcome development. Of course this doesn't change their attitude towards our presence in Iraq:
Former Baathists who have embraced militant Islam, like Jassim Abu Bakr, are still fiercely opposed to U.S.-backed leaders and say any Sunni politicians who move too close to them will lose their support.
"We are telling Sunnis that they have to vote for nationalist parties and even if they win we will be watching very closely to keep them in line," said the Falluja militant, 28.
Additionally, at least some of the insurgents appear willing to turn on Zarqawi:
But Saddam loyalists have turned against Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant whose fighters travel to Iraq from across the Arab world to blow themselves up in a bid to spark sectarian civil war.
"Zarqawi is an American, Israeli and Iranian agent who is trying to keep our country unstable so that the Sunnis will keep facing occupation," said a Baathist insurgent leader who would give his name only as Abu
Abdullah.
I don't know that anyone's ever argued that Zarqawi is popular among even the Sunnis (and obviously not the Shiites, who he bitterly opposes.) But for the most part they've seemed willing to tolerate his presence. There's no changing the fact though that the core of the insurgency is Sunni, and their goals do not neatly line up with Zarqawi's. The Sunnis are interested primarily in maintaining or recapturing their power in Iraq. Zarqawi is interested in bleeding America and using Iraq as a base for terrorist operations against other Middle Eastern nations. And while he seems to have drawn some Iraqis to his side (the suicide bombers in Amman were Iraqi) it seems that primarily he draws in foreign jihadists to his cause. Zarqawi is not interested in peace of stability in Iraq; the more unstable it is, the better for his cause. As this article makes clear, where the Sunnis are intersted in stability, Zarqawi becomes a liability. And anything that drives a wedge between the insurgents and Zarqawi's forces, is a positive development for us and Iraq.
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