The al-Zawahiri letter of July 9, 2005

Here is the text of the letter of July 9, 2005 from al-Zawahiri, number 2 under bin Laden, to al-Zarqawi in Iraq. The unwillingness of so many Westerners to take bin Laden, et al. at their word - to accept that they mean what they say, no matter how crazy or historically weird it may seem to outsiders - is baffling to me. Al-Qaeda and its emulators have been altogether clear, in letters, statements, websites, and innumerable sermons delivered at the mosques of Europe, the Middle East, and even the United States by radicalized preachers of jihad, exactly what they intend. The failure to accept that they mean the strategy they describe and that we are somehow better positioned than they to describe their strategy - the idea that we merely have to reimagine their strategy so as to fit our pacific and nonconfrontational desires - ranks among the most foolish of historical errors. But the road to appeasement was ever thus.

(Update, Wednesday, October 12, 2005. Austin Bay's analysis, here, (thanks Instapundit).)