THE bloodbath that has taken place in Iraq in the past couple of days defies condemnation. Over 160 dead on Wednesday, most of them Baghdadi laborers whose only crime was to try and find some work so that they could feed their families. It was an act of sheer evil.
People can understand why the insurgents attack the forces of occupation: Iraqis are a proud people; they are thankful to be rid of Saddam Hussein, but the ignominy of occupation is humiliating. Explicable too, though to a much lesser extent, are the attacks on Iraq’s fledgling security forces who bore the brunt of Thursday’s carnage. They are seen by the insurgents as collaborators with the Americans — even though that is not true. The Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces are pro-Iraqi.
But to send out suicide bombers to deliberately kill ordinary Iraqis is beyond any understanding. This was even worse than the suicide bombing two months ago which killed around 30 children. At least then there could be the pretence that American troops were the target. There can be no pretence this time. There was no attempt to target the Americans or the security forces. Just plain Iraqis gathered near a meeting point for laborers, hoping for a day’s work.
But, as we know, the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, has reportedly declared all-out war on Shiites in Iraq. Those blown up in Kazimiyah were largely, but not entirely, Shiite. In an Internet statement shortly after the outrage, he said it was in revenge for the attack on “the Sunni people of Tal Afar.” He may claim to be fighting for the Sunnis, but he cannot have their interests at heart. He is clearly desperate to trigger a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis, but it is a war that cannot do any good for Sunnis. If there were such a conflict, the massively outnumbered Sunnis would face massacre. No outside force would intervene; the regional balance of power is too delicate. Any intervention would trigger a regional war, unless it were by all Iraq’s neighbors jointly — and that is hardly what Al-Qaeda wants.
This slaughter of the Shiites was no outburst at Iraq’s continued occupation. Nor was it linked to the proposed federal constitution which has left many in the Sunni community fearful for their economic future and which that very day was being submitted to the UN for approval; Zarqawi is not remotely interested in the Iraqi constitution. His interest is in creating an empire of killing fields where, as in the Cambodian original, anyone who does not fit into the desired model is to be exterminated — Shiites included. It is a vile, twisted vision, and it bears no semblance to Islam.
Iraq’s Sunnis must be as revolted and horrified by the attack and all that it implies as everyone else in the region. It raises the stakes dangerously — the mainstream Iraqi Shiite leadership will continue to refuse to be goaded, but there are others in the Shiite community, hotheads who may not listen to counsel of patience, who may take a different line. It is to be fervently hoped that they do not yield to their own passion for revenge.
