Losing ground

Following up on this earlier opinion, Christopher Hitchens sees some desperation inside al-Qaida:

The conditions for this latest truce are of course impossible... All one needs, in order to earn Bin Laden's mercy, is to give up Afghanistan and Iraq. But this raises a more intriguing question. Why are formerly triumphalist jihadists using the language of "truce" at all?
.....
Wherever Bin Laden is now, it cannot be where he wanted or hoped to be four and a half years ago.

Read the rest. And here's more on hostility to al-Qaida within the insurgency in Iraq:

Iraqi newspapers quoted a statement from six armed groups on Monday announcing they had united to form the "People's Cell" to confront al-Qa'ida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and preserve security in the Anbar province.

The statement condemned "armed operations which target innocents" and affirmed "a halt to co-operation with al-Qa'ida".