Hitchens is digging to find something pro-war. Hitchens is in a really isolated posistion now, being one of the few pro-war but otherwise left leaning that is still talking.

In one sense he is right though, the US press often portrays the entire insurgency in Iraq as if it was a single al-Qaida force. He is wrong however to think that the anti-al-Qaida groups are pro-US. Some may be, but from what I have read, the majority of insurgent groups are anti-US to some degree or another.

I find it particularly funny that he quotes the following "We have had enough of this nonsense," said Sheik Ahmad Khanjar, the leader of the Albu Ali clan. "We don't accept that a non-Iraqi should try to enforce his control over Iraqis, regardless of their sect\ufffdwhether Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs or Kurds." He pulls that to support his posistion without realizing the obvious implications for US control.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that the US probably should hope that al-Qaida isn't driven out of Iraq and doesn't learn from their mistakes. Beyond just the utility for Bush in terms of justifying the war, al-Qaida's indiscriminate suicide attacks end up hurting their own cause. As long as al_Qaida is making terrorist attacks that hit a lot of civilian bystanders there will be more infighting between insurgent groups and less public support for any insurgent group.

Jay