Al Qaeda is sounding desperate

So desperate, that even the media can no longer ignore the signs. The Associated Press reports:

A new video by al-Qaida's deputy leader Thursday left no doubt about what the terror network claims is at stake in Iraq — describing it as a centerpiece of its anti-American fight and insisting the Iraqi insurgency is under its direct leadership.

But the proclamations by Ayman al-Zawahri carried another unintended message: reflecting the current troubles confronting the Sunni extremists in Iraq, experts said.

As the report continues:

In the unusually long video — at just over an hour and a half — al-Zawahri depicted the Islamic State of Iraq as a vanguard for fighting off the U.S. military and eventually establishing a "caliphate" of Islamic rule across the region.

"The Islamic State of Iraq is set up in Iraq, the mujahedeen (holy warriors) celebrate it in the streets of Iraq, the people demonstrate in support of it," al-Zawahri said, "pledges of allegiance to it are declared in the mosques of Baghdad."

I wonder what Zawahiri has been smoking. Because from all the press accounts I've seen, this Islamic State in Iraq is far from being celebrated. As the AP reports:

But al-Qaida in Iraq — the group that claims allegiance to Osama bin Laden's goals — has been put on the defensive. Some Sunni insurgent groups have publicly split with it, distancing themselves from its bomb attacks on Iraqi civilians and accusing al-Qaida of trying to strong-arm their members into joining.

One influential faction, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, has openly helped U.S. forces in new offensives against al-Qaida in and around Baghdad, and some Sunni tribes have turned against it in western Anbar province.

The doctor, apparently realizing that I wouldn't be the only one out there who wouldn't buy into his assessment, did kind of sort of acknowledge that even previous supporters may have given up on Al Qaeda's competence.

As the AP continued to quote him:"The mujahedeen are not innocent of deficiency, error and slips," he said on the videotape. "The mujahedeen must solve their problems among themselves."

I do wonder what his assessment of the mujahedeen's problems would be. Demanding that people stop mixing vegetables perhaps?