Iraqi Insurgents are not just al Qaeda

Despite the administration's repeated assertions that the war in Iraq must be continued because it is the central front in the War on Terror, the Washington Post reports increasingly tense relations between Sunni Insurgents and al Qaeda in Iraq:

"The Sunni insurgency in Iraq has long been fractious, in part because secular nationalists, tribal leaders and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and army have rejected al-Qaeda's tactics, particularly beheadings. But the emerging rift represents the Sunni groups' most decisive effort since the 2003 invasion to distance themselves from al-Qaeda in Iraq."

"...Insurgent leaders, in interviews in person or by telephone, offered different explanations for their split. Many said their link to the al-Qaeda groups was tainting their image as a nationalist resistance force. Others said they no longer wanted to be tools of the foreign fighters who lead al-Qaeda. Their war, they insist, is against only the U.S. forces, to pressure them to depart Iraq."

This is further evidence that the war in Iraq is not reducible to the so-called War on Terror, and ending the Iraq war is not equivalent to capitulation to al Qaeda as the administration continues to claim in their last-ditch efforts to justify their misbegotten and unwinnable war in Iraq. Rather, ending the occupation is a recognition that ultimately it must be the Iraqis who have the last word about what happens in their country. The price of continuing to deny that is the continuation of unconscionable bloodshed.