al-Qaeda can light of a few bombs and target a few people, but they cannot claim any territory of their own in Iraq right now. Their atrocities against the Iraqi Muslims have made them the enemy and those fighting them the Islamic heroes and martyrs for the cause of Islam. They have been pushed farther and farther from the main cities and are now being pushed out the North of Iraq. But they aren’t going easily, which is an indication of why we cannot let up on them or let them turn the current momentum around. They fight for little strategic or PR cause right now. They fight because that seems to be all they are, brutal animals who only feel they are accomplishing something when lots of people die.

Decimated and on the run, al-Qaeda is trying to stave off utter defeat this month and into January. They are giving it their last gasp. But it is a gasp, as their targets now are villages, not towns or cities or other large population centers (where they would get their butts whooped). They now focus their attacks on small villages – and lose.

Baquba police Colonel Khairallah Ibrahim said two Sunni villages were attacked by al-Qaeda militants.

“Fierce fighting broke out between the villagers and al-Qaeda fighters in which 17 villagers and 22 al-Qaeda militants have been killed,” he said.

Col Ibrahim said three women were among the villagers killed.

“Most of those killed from the villages were members of the anti-Qaeda front formed recently in the area,” said another police officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ibrahim al-Obeidi.

Lt-Col Obeidi said that the two villages, Annaih and Sfayed, were previously al-Qaeda strongholds before locals aligned with the US military.

Another story of al-Qaeda, now clearly the enemy, being beaten back by the brave men of Iraq. Why wouldn’t these men who died fighting al-Qaeda not be remembered as heroes to their villages? al-Qaeda cannot kill 20 million Iraqis – they don’t have the forces. They also cannot survive if 20 million Iraqis (give or take a few thousand) decide to make it their prime focus to destroy al-Qaeda and all it represents. The only reason I can think of for al-Qaeda to keep up this self destructive madness is to try to give the Surrendercrats some propaganda to support their efforts to surrender Iraq. But that assumes there is some logic and planning to their actions.

It could be they are just blood thirsty animals of course, who just can’t stop themselves.