Via Reuters: Bombers Hit Iraqi Forces, Kill 24

Nine car bombs targeted Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and the nearby town of Madaen, a bloody display of capabilities one day after a new government was formed. The top U.S. general said this week the rebels were as strong as they were a year ago.

Eighty-nine people, mostly police and National Guardsmen, were also wounded, underscoring the security challenge facing Iraq’s new leaders after three months of post-election wrangling that appears to have emboldened the insurgency.

Of course, I question the concept of “insurgency” (which typically connotes a native force fighting either the state or occupiers) in this case if these attacks were, as the story states, the work of Zarqawi. If so, they are nothing more than terrorists and criminals bent on nothing more than death and the disruption of Iraqi progress:

The latest Zarqawi tape posted on the Web appeared to have been recorded last month. It warned President Bush that his troops would face more danger in Iraq.

“We promise God that the dog … Bush will not enjoy peace of mind and that his army will not have a good life as long as our hearts are beating,” the speaker said. “We are coming.” Zarqawi also warned fellow insurgents against taking up any offer of negotiation from the Americans or their Iraqi allies.

In general it seems to me that this type of group, which has goals that are global in nature, needs a different label—although I am not certain as to precisely what that term ought to be. “Terrorist� describes the actions, but is wholly inadequate as an analytical category, and “insurgent� doesn’t fully convey their nature either.

I see the Sunnis militants as insurgents, but question the categorization of Iraq’s al Qaeda franchise as being “insurgents� any more than the Madrid bombers were insurgents or the 911 hijackers.