al Zawahiri Unspun

Bob Owens of Confederate Yankee has annotated the al Zawahiri letter to al Qaeda's man in Baghdad, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, which was intercepted by coalition forces.

Let's just say that things aren't going well for al Qaeda in Iraq. All those suicide bombings that we hear about aren't good for business, and Zarqawi has been told to cut back on the suicide bombings of Muslims since it's turning off people to the whole idea of jihad and fighting the West.

Problem for al Qaeda is that too many of their operatives love the nihlistic worldview that says that they get paradise if they blow themselves up for the cause.

Also, according to Wretchard of the Belmont Club, al Qaeda's #2 (Zawahiri) thinks that Zarqawi has gone off message:

The letter of instructions and requests outlines a four-stage plan, according to officials: First, expel American forces from Iraq. Second, establish a caliphate over as much of Iraq as possible. Third, extend the jihad to neighboring countries, with specific reference to Egypt and the Levant -- a term that describes Syria and Lebanon. And finally, war against Israel.

The US isn't going anywhere in Iraq, except beating the snot out of the terrorists who continue to make life difficult for Iraqis who are becoming increasingly fed up with the suicide bombings and terror attacks.

UPDATE:
Powerline also works over the Zawahiri letter, but slams the NYT for their 'analysis' of the letter.

UPDATE:
Austin Bay weighs in on the Zawahiri letter:

Zarqawi's murder spree has revealed fissures among Al-Qaida fanatics. Last week, the United States released a letter coalition intelligence believes Al-Qaida's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, sent to Zarqawi. Zawahiri describes Iraq as "the greatest battle for Islam in our era." But Iraq has become a political and information battle that Zawahiri realizes Al-Qaida may be losing. According to The New York Times, Zawahiri told Zarqawi to attack Americans rather than Iraqi civilians and to "refrain from the kind of gruesome beheadings and other executions that have been posted on Al-Qaida websites. Those executions have been condemned in parts of the Muslim world as violating tenets of the faith."

In February 2004, Zarqawi acknowledged a democratic Iraqi state would mean defeat for Al-Qaida in Iraq. To defeat democracy, he has pursued a strategy of relentless, nihilistic bloodbath. It's a brutal irony of war: In doing so, he is losing the war for the hearts and minds.

So, for anyone keeping score here, if the US withdrew now, who would win? It certainly wouldn't be the Iraqi people, but the terrorists who are on the run and clearly concerned about an imminent defeat in Iraq.