Here's to Hoping for Peace in Iraq

Our friends at the Middle East Research Institute (search) have posted a translation of another hate-filled diatrabe posted on an Islamist Web site.

I don't know how to take this one...

It's a long, long screaming exercise at young Arab men about the fact that some of them don't want to go off and get killed fighting the Americans.

I guess we should take hope.

This is a lecture about shirking the duty of jihad (search)... and the writer is almost frothing at the mouth in anger that some Arab men don't want to be jihadis.

"You who shirk jihad, how can you enjoy sitting idly while your brethern in Iraq suffer greatly under the oppression of Allah's enemies, while you are with your wives?"

So does it now appear that the American military isn't the one with a recuritment and retention problem, it's the insurgents?

Judging by this posting on the Internet, they're having some trouble replacing all the jihadists Americans killed in Fallujah, and before that — the ones in Najaf, and before that — the ones in Sadr Dity.

Maybe Gen. Richard Meyers (search) was right when he said that we appear to have the insurgents on the run, and that we should take the opportunity to chase them down while we can.

I know some people say I'm wrong, but I think this voting thing in Iraq could work.

Everybody likes to vote on their future, even if they're going to exercise their vote on a king or a despot. It's still their vote.

Combine that fact with what appears to be something of a desperate tone in the call to jihad... and maybe the new year holds some good news for war-weary Iraq and war-weary American.

Here's to hoping.