BIG ATTACKS ON SHI’ITES IN IRAQ. It seems to me that this suggests that the captured Zarqaawi memo, which spelled out a strategy of engaging in just such attacks in the hopes of encouraging Iraqi Shia to attack Iraqi Sunnis, thus pushing the latter in the Al Qaeda camp, was in fact genuine.

I also think that this makes clear what the terrorists are really about, even to those who didn’t get it before. This is about a drive for dominance by a particular group of fanatical Wahhabists, not a more general Islamic struggle against the West, or Zionism, or any of the other excuses offered in the “why do they hate us?” vein. They attacked civilians in the United States because they thought it would help advance their campaign to restore the Caliphate with themselves on top. Now they’re attacking Iraqi civilians because they hope that it will advance their chances of survival in a world in which even most Sunni Arabs don’t like them.

That also suggests that we’re making progress.

UPDATE: They’re attacking Shi’ites in Pakistan, too. I don’t think this will help their cause.