Jonah pointed this out in a post much earlier today. Zarqawi’s stark anti-elections statement is potentially very significant. Insurgencies win or lose on the basis of their political appeal. Zarqawi is betting that Iraqis, or at least most Iraqi Sunnis, want despotism and find the idea of democratic governance, not flawed in its implementation, not too difficult to effect in the current security environment, but odious in its own right. I’m guessing over the long term he’s putting himself on the wrong side of Iraqi political sentiment, and someone who has only car bombs and rejectionism to offer will find his movement–or whatever you want to call it–slowly losing its juice…