Another excellent piece by Michael Ledeen analysing the 17-page letter from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian Palestinian with suspected terror links, to Al Q'aeda asking for help to foment a Sunni/Shia civil war in Iraq. This letter contains the stunning admission that the attempted insurrection in Iraq is going extremely badly because -- surprise surprise -- the Iaqis want none of it. Key quote: 'We can pack up and leave and look for another land, just like what has happened in so many lands of jihad. Our enemy is growing stronger day after day, and its intelligence information increases.' The worst thing of all is the progress being made towards democracy in Iraq, when 'the sons of this land will be the authority...This is the democracy. We will have no pretexts.' Instead, Zarqawi gasps 'by God, this is suffocation!'

As Ledeen points out, it is startling that the US is not making more of this admission. At the same time, it is likely that for the very reasons laid out in the letter terrorist abominations, like the mass murder of the Iraqi rookie policemen yesterday and the second car bomb today, will unfortunately escalate as handover day approaches. And as Ledeen goes on to say, the key to peace and stability in Iraq is to defang Iran, from where so much of the terrorist insurgency is being instigated, but where both the US and Britain are currently dancing delicately around the despots.