Open Jordan thread
Comment away on the latest suicide bombing attacks in Jordan. Earlier in the week I had referenced Marc Lynch’s overvations about prior Zarqawi-inspired attacks in northern Africa. I tend to agree with his preliminary read of this attack as well: [C]alling it an “al-Qaeda attack” is misleading – you have to look at it, I’d ...
Comment away on the latest suicide bombing attacks in Jordan. Earlier in the week I had referenced Marc Lynch's overvations about prior Zarqawi-inspired attacks in northern Africa. I tend to agree with his preliminary read of this attack as well:
Comment away on the latest suicide bombing attacks in Jordan. Earlier in the week I had referenced Marc Lynch’s overvations about prior Zarqawi-inspired attacks in northern Africa. I tend to agree with his preliminary read of this attack as well:
[C]alling it an “al-Qaeda attack” is misleading – you have to look at it, I’d say, as a Zarqawi operation aimed both at his Iraqi strategy and at his escalating intra-Islamist strategy. The timing and nature of this attack suggest that it may have more to do with Iraq and with Zarqawi’s two-level games than with bin Laden’s grand plan…. The nature of the attack – especially the sheer evil brutality of attacking a wedding celebration – once again throws dirt in the face of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who (assuming the authenticity of that letter) urged Zarqawi to stop doing things which would alienate Arab public opinion. That the traditional Jordanian opposition – including the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated professional associations – led an angry protest against Zarqawi speaks volumes. Jordanian public opinion (certainly the organized political opposition) has been more generally supportive of the insurgency than in most other places… to hear them shouting “death to Zarqawi” shows how thoroughly his methods alienate even potential supporters.
Here’s an MSNBC story on the post-bombing protests:
Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied Thursday outside one of three U.S.-based hotels attacked by suicide bombers, shouting, ?Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!? ? a reference to the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, the terrorist group tied to the blasts that killed at least 56 people. The protest was organized by Jordan?s 14 professional and trade unions ? made up of both hard-line Islamic groups and leftist political organizations ? traditionally vocal critics of Abdullah?s moderate and pro-Western policies.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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