Islamist Crazies Alive and Well on the Internet

I found this video via Views From The Occident. The video is a type of eulogy for Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, a militant Salafi terrorist who was killed by a US airstrike in 2006 and demonstrates the fact that Salafi terrorists are still around and have added tacky video editing as a part of their training. Iraq's recent resurgence of violence has been alarming as well as disheartening to see that Iraq's sovereignty looks lengths away from the foreseeable future.

The militant Salafist movements of Iraq are still strong despite a reduction in violence from 2006 and 2007. Reasons for this include the vast numbers of Sunni Iraqi's disenfranchised by the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the unlimited supply of radical Sunni extremists living everywhere from Kashhmir to London. This not so efficient network of radical Salifis provides moral and/or financial support to similar groups in conflict zones (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc).

The US military's current strategy is building alliances with Sunni tribes to combat Salafi terrorist groups from the community level and cutting off their recruitment base. However effective these efforts may be in the short run, a long term solution can only be provided by the global Muslim community itself. Salafi strategies of financing Islamic mosques and dawa with the condition that it be headed with Salafi ideology creates an incredible base of Muslims who are complacent to Salafi violence around the world. Not until the dangers of militant Salafism/Wahabism becomes a major discourse in the global Muslim community will there be a significant reduction in the global networks of Islamist terrorists.

Related Reading
Is Iraq Sliding Back Into Chaos?
Frontline Analaysis of Wahabism
The Decline of Knowledge and the Rise of Ideology in the Modern Islamic World

Iran Delegate Criticizes Afghanistan Troop Surge

At a Hague meeting on Afghanistan attended by US's Richard Holbrooke and Iranian representative Mohammad Mehdi Akhoondzadeh, the Iranian rep stated that, "the presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country, and it seems than an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective." The delegate added that resources should be focused on building Afghanistan's military forces.

Mr. Akhoondzadeh also mentioned Iran's willingness to combat drug trafficking and reconstructing Afghanistan's infastructure. Afghanistan's drug problem has shown to be Iran's problem as well. Iranian officials say the drug war has cost their nation over $600 million in the last two years. Drug clashes have claimed 3,700 Iranian security officials and injured 11,000 in more than 12,000 clashes between traffickers and police officers between 1989 and 2003, according to Iranian statistics cited in a UN report.