Juan Cole sur la mort de Zarqaoui

On sait que le professeur Juan Cole est l’un des meilleurs spécialistes américains indépendants des questions irakiennes. Il a publié un premier commentaire sur la mort de Zarqaoui, où il évalue l’importance de l’événement.

Nous en publions ci-dessous l’essentiel (voir aussi, sur le même lien, les commentaires de lecteurs, intéressants, accompagnant le texte de Cole):

« Zarqawi had been a significant leader of the Salafi Jihadi radical strain of Islamist volunteers in Iraq, and had succeeded in spreading his ideas to local Iraqis in places like Ramadi. He engaged in grandstanding when he renamed his group “al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia,” even though he had early been critical of al-Qaeda and had a long rivalry with it.

» There is no evidence of operational links between his Salafi Jihadis in Iraq and the real al-Qaeda; it was just a sort of branding that suited everyone, including the US. Official US spokesmen have all along over-estimated his importance. Leaders are significant and not always easily replaced. But Zarqawi has in my view has been less important than local Iraqi leaders and groups. I don't expect the guerrilla war to subside any time soon.

» Baqubah is dangerous not because of Zarqawi but because it is a mixed Sunni-Shiite and Kurdish area that had Baath military installations and arms depots, and enough Sunni Arabs from the old regime know about them to work them against rising Shiite and Kurdish dominance.

Mis en ligne le 8 juin 2006 à 23H01