Nihilism? Sectarianism? Making Iraq ungovernable? I don't get it.
.................
No one really knows.
Or at least, no one knows in full because there isn't a unified 'resistance' with a single, agreed upon objective.
Sober observers consistently offer three explanations for this carnage: sectarianism, the effort to create sectarianism through cold blooded murder and the ruthless killing of those who are deemed to be collaborators because they want to work and most of the work happens to be with the al-Maliki government or the Americans (which is pretty much the same thing).
Probably all three - and more - are true.
It's important to remember that a cadre of killing professionals have been been unleashed by the occupation's failure to create order; these are the sorts of people who, during Hussein's rule, committed all manner of atrocities under the aegis of the Iraqi flag.
They're free agents now - Ronin, to borrow the old Japanese word for masterless samurai. They have their own agenda and confront zero inhibitions that might restrain the use terrible methods.
No doubt, they're a very large factor and responsible for many of the mass murders we're seeing.
.d.