What Does Zarqawi Want?

The title question for this post is asked by John Hinderaker of Powerline today in response to an article in the New York Times by James Bennett entitled, "The Mystery of the Insurgency."

John then quotes at great length from a response to the article by blogger/author Dafydd ab Hugh.

The gist of this response is to say that the Iraqi "insurgents" are not seeking anything political such as Ho Chi Min's Viet Cong. They are more related to Aztec priests and rulers who gloried in the death of others for its own sake. According to this line of reasoning, short of the death of everyone in Iraq, there will be no stopping these folks short of ridding the world of them first.

I find I must agree with much of what is written here but would want to include a deeper, more thoughtful reflection on the fundamentalist Islamic theological rhetoric which provides the spiritual justification and rationale for the fanatical, indiscriminant blood-letting we are reading about each day.

The question still remains, nagging at us like an annoying shred of spider web hanging on the wall above the TV set: "What does Zarqawi want?" The media, including the New York Times, doesn't seem to know. Do you?