Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden

The leader of the primary Sunni resistance/insurgent movement in Iraq, al-Zarqawi has declared via the internet that his organization, Tawhid and Jihad, has dedicated itself to the leadership of bin Laden. Although there have been reported ties between al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda for several years, including allegedly acting as a liason between al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam in Iraq prior to the US invasion, this is the first time that al-Zarqawi has subjugated his own leadership role to that of Osama bin Laden.

Most observers of the Islamist-insurgent world prior to 9/11 believed that al-Zarqawi saw himself as a competitor to bin Laden for leadership of the defenders of Islam against the 'crusaders, zionists, infidels and apostates.' It is only now that al-Zarqawi has committed his organization to the leadership of bin Laden and al Qaeda in the hopes of encouraging more resistance and insurgency in Iraq against the interim government and the US military--if more al Qaeda fighters join the effort in Iraq, al-Zarqawi could give the US and the Iraqi government more trouble than they have yet experienced.

It seems at this point that there is NO exit strategy for Iraq. We are embroiled in a continuing war against the resistance/insurgency that could very well last for decades. Both Presidential candidates argue that we MUST succeed in Iraq. I would agree that is true, but I would remind everyone of Colin Powell's argument to the President before we invaded Iraq--"if you break it, you own it." This President 'broke it', and the next President will have to clean up the mess. If this President is still in office, I can only imagine that he will end up breaking the pieces into smaller parts. There is no forseeable means of putting the pieces back together with this President in charge.

It will take a unique vision to fix what has gone wrong, and I am not certain that we can be clear of our committment to Iraq for years to come, but we must start on November 2 to try and fix the things that have gone wrong. Maybe John Kerry does not have the unique vision that is needed to fix the difficulties, but I will be voting for him because I am extremely confident that the current administration does not have the ability to even acknowledge its mistakes, let alone fix them!