From One Megalomaniac To Another

Here is one of the best analyses of Zawahiri's letter that I have found in the blogsphere. Here is the full text of the letter.

But more important than those issues, this letter shows us the attributes of Zawahiri's personality. From this we also can judge the personality of Zarqawi by the way he is viewed from Zawahiri. I believe this tells us a lot that we may have suspected before. This letter is one that has a bottom-line in it that is glaringly obvious to me:

Zawahiri is very worried that Zarqawi is going to blow the whole Iraq deal because he's a loose cannon.

Zawahiri is trying to communicate very important advice (to the point of rebuke) to Zarqawi, but through the writing, we see that Zarqawi must have the mindset of an egomaniac who is ignorant in many areas, because Zawahiri rebukes him ever-so-gently, trying hard not to insult him, but making it very clear that he's on the wrong course in Iraq. It's like trying to reason with a child.

Or like one megalomaniac trying to "reason" with another-- without triggering his megalomaniacal ego-and his narcissistic rage.

That's hard to do, folks. Very hard. It does not bode well for social harmony and brotherhood within Al Qaeda, which can only be a really good thing for the rest of the world.