Zarquawi is running scared:

For his part, Al Zarqawi has also expressed concern over the U.S. military operation against Fallujah, Mosul and other insurgency strongholds.

On Wednesday, an audio tape posted on an Islamic website and purportedly from Al Zarqawi accused Muslim clerics of failing to support the insurgency in Iraq.

“You have let us down in the darkest circumstances and handed us over to the enemy,” the message said. “You have stopped supporting the holy warriors. Hundreds of thousands of the nation’s sons are being slaughtered at the hands of the infidels because of your silence.”

“Hundreds of thousands”?

Is such exaggeration really helpful to his cause? If I were an incipient Jihadi, I might have second thoughts about joining up upon hearing that. If, that is, they subscribe to bin Laden’s “strong horse” theory (that is, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.”). The message is, “we’re losing, folks.”