Impact of Zarqawi’s death [Archives:2006/956/Opinion]

By: Imran Khan
On 7th June 2006 Abu Musab Al Zaqawi was killed when a US Air Force F-16 Jet dropped two 500 pounds guided bombs on his safe house near Baquba, Iraq. His death is indeed a big event. He was associated with so called Al-Qaida network and was leading it in Iraq. So it is a great setback to Al-Qaida and insurgency, but now the big question is that will Zarqawi's death brings any kind of peace in Iraq and the bloodshed will be stopped?

I believe that there are 2 kinds of movements, one which is started by someone or by few persons to try to achieve something of their choice. The 2nd kind of movement is that which is brought up by the persons of any community or country themselves; we can call it a revolution also. When a large community in any area is fed up with something and nothing going in their favor, they will rise up and take things in their hands. In first kind of moment the people could listen to someone and may be a part of that movement but if the leader or leaders of that movement are vanished (killed, die or whatever) then the movement is also weaken and it ends quickly. But in the 2nd kind of movement which is started by the entire community, it is very hard to stop and someone's death will never end it and if someone is killed by the other forces it can ignites more fury and even more power into the movement. History clearly proves it, for example in revolution in France where rulers tried to stop people by terrorizing them with daily killings and with hard punishments. But when people are united nothing can stop them and monarchs of France saw their powerful rule was ended by commoners.

So one has to think that what the situation in Iraq is? What is going on there? Is the sectarian killing is a part of insurgents' plan only or there few factors which has created this situation. If civil war started in Iraq it will be eventually deadly for US occupation. How can any force stay in a country if everyone is killing everyone.

Iraq is mainly made up with three communities' Shias, Sunnis and Kurds. Sunnis were in power before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. When Saddam Hussein rule was over, Initially there were few steps which have been taken by the Iraqi government and coalition forces were actually not very good. They were meant to spread negative feelings among certain community. Sunnis are in minority but does it means to completely ignore them or treat them as enemies in post Saddam Iraq. That was done when making Iraqi Forces (Army & Police) by completely ignoring the Sunnis so first impression was that perhaps these forces are made against the Sunni population. Few incidents proved that also. So insurgents or Al-Qaida thought it is the base and they can gain few advantages from it and started killing Shias and tried to create an atmosphere where both communities could fight with each other.

It is the responsibility of the Iraqi government to stop these kinds of measures which are sending wrong signals to any community. So the assessment of Sunni population about the Iraqi government will be very important for Iraqi future.

Few years ago no one was even aware of Zarqawi's name and his network in Iraq but due to some wrong actions by Iraqi authorities he was able to make a place for him. But now if all Iraqi communities decide to sit together and cooperate with each other I am sure that the movement which was started by Zarqawi & Co will end soon. Otherwise if an entire community is stand up and willing to fight than I am sure world will see someone else taking Zarqawi's position and completing his mission perhaps with more force and with more hate.

So it all depends on how Iraqi authorities work from now on and their decisions are meant for the betterment for all Iraqi residents or for any particular community. We will see it soon.
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